}ol&at4f 


Works  of  John  Bascotn 

^Esthetics 

Comparative  Psychology 

Evolution  and  Religion 

Historical  Interpretation  of  Philosophy 

Natural  Theology 

New  Theology 

Philosophy  of  English  Literature 

Philosophy  of  Religion 

Philosophy  of  Rhetoric 

Problems  in  Philosophy 

Science  of  Mind 

Sociology 

Growth  of  Nationality  in  the  United  States 

Social  Theory 

The  Goodness  of  God 

The  Words  of  Christ 

Things  Learned  by  Living 


Sermons   and  Addresses 


By 

John  Bascom 

Author  of  "The  New  Theology,"  "  The  Words  of  Christ  as 

Principles  of  Personal  and  Social  Growth,"   "The 

Goodness  of  God,"  etc. 


G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons 

New  York  and  London 
Gbe    fmicfterbocfcer    press 

1913 


COPYRIGHT,  1913 

BY 
F.  BASCOM 


Ube  Knickerbocker  press,  Hew  Itforh 


SRLF 
URL 

5144137 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

THE  LORD'S  PRAYER i 

ADDRESS  TO  ASSOCIATION  OF  MINISTERS         .     124 

AN  ADDRESS  TO  THE  GRADUATING  CLASS  OF 

THE  PALMER  HIGH  SCHOOL     .         .         .150 

PHI  BETA  KAPPA  ADDRESS    .         .         .         .171 

THE  FIELD  Is  THE  WORLD    ....     202 

PHILISTINISM         .         .         .         .         .         .225 

WHAT  Is  THE  WORLD'S  PURPOSE  ?         .         .     258 
KNOWLEDGE          ......     283 

ROMANS  1 : 17 328 

LUKE  X  :  38-42 341 


iii 


Sermons  and  Addresses 


THE  LORD'S  PRAYER 

Lord's  Prayer  is  the  most  concise  and 
comprehensive  expression  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christianity.  Its  constant  use  in  worship,  public 
and  private,  is  in  recognition  of  its  character  as 
of  the  very  substance  of  our  faith.  Prayer, 
though  it  readily  drops  into  formality  and  insin- 
cerity, is  yet  the  truest  expression  of  our  spiritual 
life.  One  in  praying  for  what  he  desires  is  pour- 
ing out,  from  the  fountain  of  the  heart,  its  inmost 
streams.  The  fact  that  so  many,  with  at  least 
some  degree  of  appreciation,  can  join  in  these 
simple  words  of  our  Lord's  Prayer  reveals  its 
identity  with  our  common  spiritual  experience. 
A  most  obvious  feature  of  this  prayer  is  its 
brevity.  It  conies  under  the  principle,  "Ye  shall 
not  be  heard  for  your  much  speaking";  a  prin- 
ciple so  in  conflict  with  human  practice.  As 

i 


2  The  Lord's  Prayer 

shown  in  the  prayer  wheels  of  the  Buddhist  and 
in  the  petitions  of  our  Puritan  fathers,  the  road 
up  to  heaven  has  been  thought  to  be  a  long  and 
fatiguing  one.  The  shorter  the  prayer  the  closer 
the  access.  Ejaculatory  prayer  flings  us  at  once 
on  the  divine  bosom. 

The  Lord's  Prayer  is  social.  This  is  involved 
both  in  the  forms  of  the  petitions  and  in  their  sub- 
stance. The  things  asked  for  are  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  daily  bread,  forgiveness,  deliverance  from 
temptation;  wants  which  press  upon  us  all  day 
by  day.  There  is  little  prayer  of  a  private  order. 
The  spirit  may  have  its  own  temptations  with 
which  it  is  in  bitter  struggle,  yet  even  then  it 
finds  itself  associated  with  the  common  life.  The 
temptation  is  a  snare  to  the  man  himself,  but  it  is 
also  a  snare  to  others.  Prayer  cannot  carry  a 
tinge  of  selfishness.  Selfishness  estranges  us 
from  God,  estranges  us  from  others,  estranges  us 
from  our  proper  selves.  The  Lord's  Prayer 
carries  a  blessing  with  it  in  the  measure  in  which 
it  springs  from  many  hearts  and  bears  them  all 
over  into  the  common  welfare.  Thus  only  does 
this  kingdom  come. 

The  Lord's  Prayer  is  exceedingly  comprehen- 
sive. It  is  this  which  makes  its  constant  use  so 
fitting  and  yet  so  difficult.  It  is  hard  to  keep 


The  Lord's  Prayer  3 

the  mind  up  to  the  measure  of  the  prayer.  We 
utter  it  at  different  times  with  very  different 
degrees  of  appreciation.  Our  prayers,  floating 
on  the  same  surface,  draw  very  different  depths 
of  water.  Sometimes  our  thoughts  skim  along 
in  shallow  places,  and  sometimes,  like  well-laden 
vessels,  they  lie  deep  in  the  sea  and  find  their  way 
into  leading  ports.  It  is  these  hidden  fathoms 
beneath  the  surface  that  measure  our  petitions. 

We  start  in  affectionate  dependence:  Our 
Father  which  art  in  Heaven.  To  this  we  add 
reverence:  Hallowed  be  thy  name.  Thence  we 
stretch  upward  to  the  kingdom,  the  doing  of  the 
divine  will  by  all  everywhere.  This  is  the  summit. 
From  this  throne  of  peace  we  turn  downward, 
passing  to  the  world  as  it  is  in  its  wants,  passions, 
and  perplexities.  We  ask  for  daily  bread,  for 
forgiveness,  for  power  against  temptation,  and 
we  close  all  with  the  feeling  that  all  is  in  God's 
hand,  kingdom,  power,  glory,  and  will  come  out 
of  that  hand  in  its  own  order  and  beauty.  Thus 
with  face  upward  we  struggle  to  the  top  of  some 
high  mountain,  and  having  caught  the  vision  of 
power  and  the  spirit  of  repose,  turn  back  to 
familiar  objects  and  daily  duties. 

What  more  can  we,  though  in  a  world  of  toil, 
suffering,  and  disaster,  either  need  or  desire  be- 


4  The  Lord's  Prayer 

yond  these  few  common  and  comprehensive  words 
of  prayer,  by  which  we  go  up  to  the  House  of  God 
and  return  again,  cheerful  and  refreshed? 

The  Lord's  Prayer  strikes  us  at  once  by  its 
brevity,  its  social  quality,  and  its  comprehensive- 
ness; and  these  traits  prepare  us  to  look  more 
closely  at  its  construction.  It  involves  or  assumes 
at  once  the  character  of  God,  to  whom  we  pray 
and  with  whom  we  work.  There  is  no  dogma 
in  the  prayer.  If  we  applied  to  it  the  severest 
analysis,  it  would  yield  a  small  creed,  and  no 
other  creed  than  that  contained  in  the  world 
about  us.  We  are  walking  with  God  in  the 
world,  and  this  prayer  helps  us  to  acquire  a 
knowledge  of  his  purposes,  the  tasks  assigned  us, 
and  their  method  of  fulfillment — all  in  harmony 
with  our  own  experience.  The  prayer  is  not 
didactic,  is  not  dictatorial,  but  it  assumes  a  great 
deal.  It  presupposes  that  we  have  found  God, 
or  are  finding  him,  in  the  world ;  have  some  notion 
of  his  kingdom;  are  in  the  school  of  repentance; 
know  the  danger  of  falling  off  by  ourselves;  and 
feel  the  constant  need  of  the  divine  presence. 
The  prayer  takes  the  world  as  it  is,  takes  us  as 
we  are,  and  busies  itself  in  working  all  up  into 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  It  allies  us  with  God 
and  God  with  us:  we  with  him  moving  toward  a 


new  creation.  It  does  not  allow  us  to  draw  back 
from  God,  to  make  terms  with  him,  or  to  draw  up  a 
plan  of  salvation.  It  treats  this  as  already  done, 
and  sweeps  us  into  a  method  already  in  full  oper- 
ation, that  we  may  both  accept  its  labors  and 
share  its  rewards.  In  the  measure  in  which  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being  in  God  will 
this  petition  be  intelligible  to  us,  our  whole  hearts 
passing  into  its  supplication.  The  relations  it  in- 
volves are  those  of  children  to  parents,  the  weak 
to  the  strong,  the  ignorant  to  the  wise.  Guidance 
and  aid  are  in  immediate  transfer  from  God 
to  us,  all  sharing  with  us.  There  is  no  opposition 
of  life  to  life,  but  a  profound  ministration,  con- 
sciously and  unconsciously,  of  the  world  and  of 
God  to  us.  The  questions  of  free  will,  decrees, 
election,  do  not  arise.  Our  wants,  our  desires,  are 
too  close  upon  their  object  to  admit  of  any  such 
postponements  and  delays.  We  are  in  the  very 
act  of  arriving  at  the  divine  mind.  We  are  not 
framing  an  anatomy  of  bones,  but  are  feeling 
the  blood  circulate  in  our  own  hearts.  We  do, 
indeed,  meet  God  in  the  laws  of  nature,  the  laws 
of  mind,  the  laws  of  society;  but  we  are  also  meet- 
ing him  in  the  law  of  labor,  and  there  is  no  yoke 
upon  our  necks.  All  the  world  pulls  with  us 
and  the  kingdom  once  established,  we  cannot 


6  The  Lord's  Prayer 

divide  it;  so  much  for  us,  so  much  for  others,  so 
much  for  God.  Each  and  all  have  an  indivisible 
and  an  inseparable  part  in  it.  The  beauty  of 
our  performance  is  that  it  is  his  work,  and  the 
beauty  of  his  work  that  it  has  become  our  per- 
formance. The  willing  and  the  doing  are  all  one. 
The  world  is  being  framed  into  his  kingdom,  of 
the  same  mind  throughout. 

This  disclosure  of  all  things  in  the  character 
of  God  leads  us  to  a  second  characteristic  of  this 
prayer.  It  goes  far  to  fulfill  itself.  He  who  can 
offer  it  is  in  the  process  of  salvation.  His  eyes 
are  being  opened  to  the  light,  the  light  is  coming 
to  quicken  and  to  invigorate  his  life.  The  disciples 
asked  Christ  to  teach  them  how  to  pray,  as  John 
had  taught  his  disciples.  This  was  the  response, 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  which  from  that  day  to  this 
has  been  the  one  path  heavenward.  To  utter 
this  prayer  is  to  follow  in  the  steps  of  Christ,  as 
he  prayed  unto  the  Father. 

How  utterly  do  we  mistake  prayer,  and  our  own 
prayers.  We  think  God  difficult  of  access,  slow 
to  hear,  and  still  slower  to  answer  our  petitions. 
The  heavens  often  seem  to  men  brass  over  their 
heads  and  the  earth  iron  under  their  feet.  To 
understand  this  feeling  we  need  to  understand 
the  attitude  which  men,  half  unconsciously,  take 


The  Lord's  Prayer  7 

toward  God.  They  are  not  so  anxious  to  learn 
of  God,  to  receive  their  life  from  him,  as  they  are 
to  put  their  desires  on  God  and  to  persuade  him  to 
conform  to  their  wishes.  "Ye  ask  and  receive  not 
because  ye  ask  amiss  that  ye  may  consume  it  on 
your  lusts. "  The  passionate  child  does  not  under- 
stand the  love  of  the  father.  This  is  what  occa- 
sions the  division  between  them,  and  makes  the 
case  of  the  child  critical.  A  better  apprehension 
will  heal  all  things.  "If  any  man  lack  wisdom 
let  him  ask  of  God. "  When  we  can  pray  for  the 
kingdom,  we  shall  begin  at  once  to  enter  into  that 
kingdom.  Our  first  difficulty  is  to  feel  the  need 
of  it.  When  we  comprehend  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
we  have  been  taught  not  only  how  to  pray,  but 
are  well  along  in  the  answer  to  prayer.  Only 
rarely  do  we  really  wish  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
with  its  corrected  and  purified  life,  its  constant 
needfulness,  its  easy  self-denial,  its  pervasive  love. 
In  our  cities,  our  church  spires  tower  up  above 
crimes,  transgressions,  miseries  of  which  we  know 
but  little,  and  are  only  vaguely  anxious  to  remedy. 
Slums  contaminate  the  moral  atmosphere  far 
and  wide,  and  make  the  kingdom  impossible. 
The  kingdom  is  waiting  for  us,  not  a  kingdom  of 
indulgence,  nor  yet  of  abstinence,  but  of  pure 
enjoyments  widely  scattered.  To  pray  for  that 


8  The  Lord's  Prayer 

kingdom  is  to  win  a  heart  in  keeping  with  it. 
Christians  need  a  deeper  repentance  that  they 
may  draw  near  the  centers  of  human  life.  The 
debased  need  a  new  repentance  that  they  too  may 
find  their  way  into  the  world's  gifts.  We  all  need 
a  truer  sense  of  failure,  that  we  may  together 
approach  the  temper  of  Christ  more  apprehen- 
sively, that  we  may  unite  in  an  industry  self- 
sustaining,  all-sustaining,  and  so  creep  and  walk 
and  run  toward  our  common  kingdom,  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven. 

The  Lord's  Prayer  fulfills  itself,  not  as  heed- 
lessly uttered  but  as  deeply  and  habitually  felt. 
What  we  gain  from  the  prayer  is  not  merely  the 
prayer,  but  the  very  temper  which  the  prayer 
implies  and  invokes.  Our  thoughts  and  hearts 
flow  heavenward,  flow  together,  and  so  a  transla- 
tion overtakes  us  akin  to  the  prayer.  Prayer 
is  thus  one  of  those  changes  by  which  the  river 
of  life  is  filled  and  flows  freely.  The  ice  in  the 
winter  stream  softens,  weakens,  breaks  up,  and 
floats  away,  and  we  have  the  open,  warm,  beauti- 
ful current  once  more. 

We  are  in  a  world  in  which  the  best  things,  the 
living  things,  have  a  pushing  force  all  their  own, 
a  power  by  which  they  reach  the  light,  and  break 
out  in  flower  and  fragrance  and  fruit.  This  is 


The  Lord's  Prayer  9 

the  inmost  nature  of  the  world,  not  the  world 
which  is  a  trio  with  the  flesh  and  the  devil,  but 
the  world  of  God's  ordination  which  is  traveling 
toward  the  kingdom;  the  world  which  has  for  us 
so  many  gifts  of  nourishment,  of  pleasure,  and  of 
power,  the  world  which  enlarges  itself  under  our 
hand,  teaching  and  rewarding  every  form  of  art; 
the  world  which  brings  us  back  to  peace,  and 
expels  the  untrue  and  the  deformed  by  the  true, 
the  beautiful,  and  the  good.  If  this  upward 
growth  were  not  the  deepest  meaning  of  the  world, 
if  God  did  not  build  with  those  who  build  with 
him,  how  contemptible  would  be  our  labor,  how 
pitiful  our  prayer. 

Men  have  thought  that  the  world  needed  to  be 
purified  by  fire.  We  might  as  well  think  of 
purifying  the  forest  by  fire,  turning  the  growth  of 
centuries  into  smoke  and  ashes.  Growth  is  the 
purifying  force.  By  it  all  that  is  good  is  knit 
together,  and  all  that  is  evil,  in  its  very  decay, 
is  made  to  minister  to  the  good.  There  is  nothing 
so  powerful  as  a  just  ideal.  It  lays  hold  of  us 
in  our  best  moments,  and  returns  to  us  in  our 
failures.  It  brightens  our  thoughts;  nothing 
inferior  can  abide  in  its  presence.  Even  when 
we  turn  from  it,  it  pursues  us  and  draws  us  once 
more  to  itself.  Thus  the  whole  world,  physical 


io  The  Lord's  Prayer 

and  spiritual,  discloses  the  truth,  attracts  us  by 
the  truth,  and  ultimately  reconciles  all  things  in 
the  truth;  the  evil  harassed  in  their  transgres- 
sions, the  good  justified  in  their  goodness.  Thus 
is  it  in  the  Lord's  Prayer.  He  who  can  half  utter 
it,  learns  soon  to  utter  it  all,  teaches  others  to 
utter  it  with  him,  until  the  current  of  love,  deep- 
ened, purified,  comes  to  be  the  river  of  life,  flowing 
through  the  New  Jerusalem.  Thus  we  may  say, 
the  moment  any  human  heart  can  pour  itself  out 
in  the  prayer,  thy  kingdom  come,  that  moment 
the  kingdom  is  assured;  more  and  more  water 
will  flow  this  way.  The  prayer  completes  itself; 
the  forces  of  life  have  found  their  true  vent.  One 
thing  we  are  always  to  be  confident  of,  the  good 
is  in  the  way  of  becoming  the  real,  for  that  very 
end  it  has  been  disclosed  to  us.  We  may  not 
expect  that  the  work  of  a  thousand  years  will  be 
done  in  a  single  day,  but  that  it  will  be  done,  and 
done  the  more  effectually  because  of  this  seeming 
delay. 

All  this  means,  in  the  third  place,  that  this 
prayer  is  preeminently  spiritual.  It  is  spiritual 
in  that  for  which  it  asks,  and  it  is  spiritual  in  its 
answer.  By  spiritual  we  mean  that  it  pertains 
to  thoughts,  affections,  invisible  things.  It  does 
not  seek  sensuous  objects,  nor  is  it  met  by  them. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  n 

The  only  petition  which  seems  to  be  sensuous  is, 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,  but  it  gets  this 
color  by  making  the  word  bread  too  narrow  and 
literal,  and  the  giving  external  transfer.  We  are 
not  seeking  to  be  fed,  like  Elijah  by  the  ravens, 
but  that  our  entire  life,  intellectual  and  physical, 
may  be  nourished  under  that  inclusive  providence 
by  which  God  responds  to  us  and  we  to  him,  on 
our  side  by  labor,  on  his  side  by  the  harvests  of 
labor.  What  we  come  to  understand  throughout 
in  this  prayer  is  the  mind  of  God.  What  we  come 
to  do  by  means  of  the  prayer  is  to  work  cheerfully 
and  intelligently  with  him  in  the  fulfillment  of  his 
purposes.  The  things  changed  are  our  apprehen- 
sion of  divine  favor,  and  our  attitude  toward  his 
kingdom.  We  are  reconciled  to  the  methods  and 
purposes  of  God,  and  come  to  make  them  our 
own.  We,  who  have  misunderstood  the  world, 
who  have  been  ignorant  of  the  divine  love,  who 
have  misapprehended  also  our  own  wants  and  the 
suitable  forms  of  action,  are  now  coming  to  see  all, 
to  accept  all,  and  with  a  glad  heart  to  follow  in  the 
path  of  obedience.  We  have  entered  into  fellow- 
ship with  God,  with  the  world,  with  our  fellow- 
men,  and  with  ourselves.  Our  thoughts  are  no 
longer  confused,  our  feelings  perverted ;  we  are  find- 
ing the  true  path  and  are  walking  cheerfully  in  it. 


12  The  Lord's  Prayer 

The  world  is  not  remade  to  suit  a  vagrant  wish,  we 
are  remade  in  our  activity  toward  it,  and  in  our 
life  under  it.  The  Lord's  Prayer  is  the  substance 
of  our  faith.  No  sooner  do  we  believe  than  the 
words  come  to  our  lips;  Our  Father  which  art 
in  heaven.  We  feel  his  presence  and  go  forward 
under  his  hand. 

Men  utterly  mistake  the  world.  Physical  things, 
they  fancy,  are  chiefly  to  be  sought  after,  are  to 
be  carefully  divided  among  men,  are  to  be  owned, 
are  to  be  secured  with  a  selfish  temper  and  used 
with  a  negligent  one.  This  is  not  the  Lord's 
Prayer.  We  are  to  be  helped  of  God,  and  to  help 
forward  his  beneficent  work.  Life  is  to  minister 
to  life  in  all  its  phases.  No  creeds,  no  rituals 
define  or  measure  our  services.  We  simply  enter, 
actively  and  passively,  into  the  divine  and  uni- 
versal love.  A  loving  personality  is  at  the  center 
of  all  things,  and  we  find  our  salvation  in  drawing 
near  to  him. 

The  natural  world  has  more  frequently  been 
to  men  a  hard,  stubborn,  unsympathetic  thing. 
They  have  found  some  pleasure  in  subduing  it, 
but  they  have  frequently  been  cast  down  by  it  and 
have  suffered  unspeakable  things  from  it.  Their 
fellow-men  have  rendered  them  meager  and  grudg- 
ing aid,  have  not  infrequently  taken  sides  with 


The  Lord's  Prayer  13 

the  evil.  The  world  has  thus,  in  its  true  character, 
been  hidden  from  men.  They  have  not  compre- 
hended its  many  and  delicate  adaptations,  its 
moods  of  discipline,  its  demands  for  patience, 
its  rewards  of  skill,  the  blessedness  of  its  final 
reaction  on  mind  and  heart.  This  is  the  real 
lesson  of  life,  this  the  divine  revelation  that  we 
are  all  held  in  the  divine  embrace,  as  the  child  in 
the  arms  of  its  mother,  and  need  simply  to  grow 
up  in  and  under  this  wise  and  unbounded  love. 
The  world  is  thus  immensely  altered,  but  it  is 
altered  from  within  not  from  without. 

Men  cling  to  the  notion  of  an  external  change, 
a  change  in  the  conditions  of  life,  not  in  the  life 
itself.  Men  lack  insight,  lack  courage,  lack 
sympathy,  the  spirit  of  aidfulness.  Even  when 
they  see  the  road  to  be  well  made,  and  to  lie  in  the 
right  direction,  they  still  would  have  it  shorter, 
its  milestones  nearer  together,  or  some  swift 
vehicle  to  carry  them  over  the  distances.  All 
this  is  impossible,  the  distances  cannot  be  short- 
ened, the  milestones  huddled,  the  labor  done  by 
others.  The  change  in  each  heart  must  take 
place  fully,  the  road  itself  must  become  a  delight, 
and  all,  by  successive  stages  of  growth,  be  trans- 
formed into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  In  this 
transformation  the  Lord's  Prayer  gives  us  im- 


14  The  Lord's  Prayer 

mediate  and  immense  help — not  when  we  have 
worn  it  out  by  indifferent  utterance,  but  when  we 
have  passed  into  its  very  temper  by  the  slow  trans- 
lation of  knowledge,  experience,  and  love.  We  are 
to  overcome  the  world  as  the  strong  man  over- 
comes the  cold,  by  the  heat  of  his  own  labor. 
God  keeps  the  discipline  true  to  itself,  true  to  his 
wisdom  and  love;  let  our  lives  find  way  in  that 
discipline  and  we  are  saved,  the  world  is  trans- 
formed, and  God  rules  in  and  over  all.  For  thine 
is  the  kingdom  and  the  power  and  the  glory  for- 
ever. Amen. 

OUR  FATHER  WHICH  ART  IN  HEAVEN 

There  is  no  portion  even  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment more  compactly  full  of  spiritual  truth 
than  the  Lord's  Prayer.  A  prayer  designed  for 
constant  and  universal  use  must,  from  the  nature 
of  the  case,  contain  the  very  substance  of  faith; 
must,  in  the  direction  it  gives  to  the  mind,  carry 
it  straight  forward  to  the  very  heart  of  things. 
We  can  look  nowhere  more  advantageously  for 
the  gist  of  Christianity  than  to  our  Lord's  Prayer. 
It  is  the  simplest  and  most  direct  expression  of  the 
desires  which  should  lie  uppermost  in  the  devout 
spirit. 

As  we  are  now  in  the  frequent  use  of  this  prayer 


The  Lord's  Prayer  15 

to  guide  public  worship,  we  have  the  more  occasion 
for  pains  that  we  penetrate  to  its  true  temper, 
and  give  its  familiar  words  their  vital  force.  The 
feet  of  men  easily  convert  any  road  into  a  dusty 
thoroughfare,  with  few  pleasures  of  its  own,  a 
mere  passageway  to  something  beyond.  If  we 
are  to  maintain,  in  connection  with  this  constant 
repetition,  the  fresh  feeling  of  prayer,  these  simple 
words  must  be  renewed  by  meditation,  and  made 
to  retain  the  depths  which  belong  to  them.  The 
transparent  wisdom  of  these  petitions,  like  the 
beauty  of  the  blue  sky,  must  return  to  us  again 
and  again  as  a  staple  element  in  our  spiritual 
lives.  They  must  be  to  us  the  familiar  form  of 
things  inexhaustible. 

The  words  of  address,  Our  Father  which  art 
in  heaven,  are  the  most  tender  and  intelligible 
possible.  There  is  no  effort  of  exaltation  or  ad- 
oration in  them.  We  are  placed  by  them  on  the 
most  direct  and  simple  terms  of  communication 
with  God.  Let  us  consider  them  in  an  inverse 
order.  The  words,  which  art  in  heaven,  are 
added  as  a  designation  of  the  invisible,  the  uni- 
versal Father.  They  lift  the  mind  to  the  final 
limit  of  giving  and  care- taking  in  this  world  of 
ours.  As  the  heavens  lie  about  us  everywhere 
and  enclose  us  in  their  embrace  they  best  express 


1 6  The  Lord's  Prayer 

to  us  the  divine  and  universal  presence.  The 
heavens  receive,  and  on  occasion  yield,  many 
subtle  agents.  Gravitation,  heat,  light,  elec- 
tricity, ozone,  and  the  gaseous  elements  penetrate 
these  spaces,  and  come  thence  as  potent  forces 
acting  upon  our  lives  in  many  scrutable  and 
inscrutable  ways.  The  heavens,  therefore,  easily 
seem  to  us  the  seat  of  that  most  comprehensive 
power  which  girds  us  in.  Men  have  no  difficulty 
in  regarding  the  air  as  the  home  of  spirits,  passing 
from  invisible  to  visible  forms  as  suits  their 
convenience.  The  universal  spirit  is  thus  the 
spirit  of  the  air,  the  spirit  that  dwells  in  heavenly 
places. 

In  rude  periods  men  pass  in  thought  more 
readily  beyond  the  visible  and  tangible  than  they 
do  in  cultivated  periods.  It  is  no  tax  on  their 
faith  to  conceive  of  spirits  melting  into  the  air, 
or  coming  out  of  the  air,  that  they  may  reveal 
themselves  to  men.  It  is  a  vision  as  simple  as 
the  coming  and  going  of  clouds,  seen,  unseen,  seen 
again.  This  very  facility  of  early  faith  has  be- 
come to  us  an  obstacle  in  approaching  the  Infi- 
nite Spirit.  Having  expelled  these  many  spirits, 
malevolent  and  benevolent,  of  human  and  of 
superhuman  origin,  from  their  home  in  the  air, 
we  have  difficulty  in  retaining  a  sense  of  the  ever- 


The  Lord's  Prayer  17 

present  creative  Spirit,  from  whom  this  visible 
pageant  of  things  is  constantly  proceeding.  Men, 
having  found  their  way  into  the  invisible  world 
by  means  of  many  illusions,  lose  it  again  when 
these  are  discarded  as  superstitious.  A  universal 
Father  associated  with  the  heavens  only  because 
these  are  the  best  expression  to  us  of  a  comprehen- 
sive and  invisible  presence,  becomes  an  obscure 
conception  to  our  sensuous  experience.  It  either 
slips  into  empty  words,  or  overpowers  us  with 
sudden  fear.  To  make  the  presence  of  God  a 
familiar,  cheerful,  and  habitual  impression  becomes 
the  great  discipline  of  faith.  Yet  there  is  nothing 
with  which  we  are  more  familiar,  in  all  our 
thoughts,  than  invisible  agents,  whose  presence 
is  the  very  substance  of  the  phenomena  with  which 
we  are  occupied.  Force  is  the  word  by  which  we 
chiefly  express  the  inner  energy  of  physical  facts — 
that  without  which  they  would  be  to  us  mere 
shadows,  the  dreams  of  dreamland.  The  effects 
of  forces  are  the  permanent  and  tangible  things, 
and  events  everywhere  about  us  disclose  them  to 
us,  but  the  forces  themselves  are  an  invisible 
presence,  evoked  by  the  mind  in  explanation  of 
these  events.  The  equivalence  of  forces,  that 
is  that  forces  are  in  their  expression  convertible 
into  one  another,  and  are  measures  of  one  another, 


1 8  The  Lord's  Prayer 

is  a  great  cardinal  fact  of  physics.  Yet  it  implies 
in  all  physical  phenomena,  whether  mechanical 
or  chemical,  permanent  agents,  subject,  in  their 
manifestation,  to  mathematical  measurements. 
This  invisible  something  which  we  call  force,  and 
which  has  so  many  ways  of  manifesting  itself,  is  a 
permanent  factor  by  which  we  understand  the 
physical  world  and  bend  it  to  our  uses. 

In  the  organic  world  we  have  another  name 
for  an  invisible  element,  to  wit,  life.  Each  form 
of  living  thing  is  a  new  character  in  which  this 
constructive  tendency,  this  pervasive  life,  records 
itself.  We  cannot  think,  nor  talk,  nor  act,  in 
connection  with  the  vegetable  or  animal  kingdoms, 
without  this  notion  of  life,  this  distinction  between 
the  dead  and  the  living;  and  yet  we  never  reach 
life  by  the  senses.  We  cannot  assign  it  a  single 
characteristic,  but  simply  use  it  as  an  invisible 
organic  energy  in  connection  with  which  all  living 
phenomena  are  apprehensible. 

We  come  in  yet  closer  contact  with  the  in- 
visible in  our  own  spirits.  There  is  a  spirit  in 
man;  that  is  an  affirmation  which  underlies  every 
notion  of  intellectual  life.  Men  have  striven  to 
give  definite  form  and  exact  position  in  the  brain 
to  this  spirit  which  animates  human  action.  They 
have  thought  of  it  as  a  dove,  perched  on  the 


The  Lord's  Prayer  19 

pineal  gland,  but  no  intelligible  purpose  has  been 
subserved  by  such  a  notion.  The  formless  spirit 
must  be  left  to  pervade  the  body,  to  use  freely 
all  its  members,  but  must  be  allowed  to  come 
into  no  local  subjection  or  submission  to  any  of 
them.  It  is  an  invisible  presence  in  the  body, 
its  own  narrow  and  primary  universe.  Why, 
therefore,  dealing  as  we  do  with  a  world  full  of 
intangible  terms,  should  we  have  any  difficulty  in 
accepting  an  Infinite  Spirit,  whose  personal 
presence  animates,  shapes,  and  bears  forward  the 
universe  as  one  harmonious  product?  The  pres- 
ence of  the  mind  in  the  body  and  of  God  in  the 
world  are  facts  of  so  much  the  same  order,  that 
if  we  deny  the  one  we  endanger  the  other.  Our 
own  spiritual  life,  associated  with  the  body  but 
not  identical  with  it,  is  the  image  of  the  events  of 
the  world  about  us  in  their  dependence  on  the  per- 
vasive, eternal  Spirit  of  order.  If  we  strike  at  the 
being  of  God,  we  strike  at  our  own  being.  If  we 
find  no  controlling  Spirit  in  the  wide  and  well- 
ordered  phenomena  of  the  world,  we  are  weakening 
the  conditions  of  thought  under  which  we  rally 
to  ourselves  in  the  narrower  and  less  well-ordered 
events  of  our  own  lives.  The  power  to  find  the 
invisible  Spirit  who  dwells  in  heaven  is  akin  to  the 
power  by  which  we  find  every  invisible  agent 


20  The  Lord's  Prayer 

behind  the  veil  of  phenomena;  the  power  by 
which  we  penetrate  into  real  being.  When  one 
says,  the  strength  in  my  right  arm,  the  life  in  my 
blood,  the  soul  in  my  body,  he  throws  himself 
back  in  the  same  way  on  the  unseen  as  he  does 
when  he  says,  Our  Father  which  art  in  Heaven. 
These  words  are  the  last,  the  most  comprehensive, 
and  the  most  logical  of  those  conceptions  by 
which  we  gather  all  things  together,  making  them 
part  and  parcel  of  one  universe.  It  is  thus  true 
of  our  thinking,  that  it  lives  and  moves  and  has  its 
being  in  God. 

To  reach  the  invisible  in  things  means  science, 
civilization;  to  reach  it  in  living  organisms  means 
physiology,  hygiene;  to  attain  to  it  in  the  world  as 
one  whole  means  philosophy,  religion. 

FATHER — Our  FATHER  which  art  in  Heaven .  We 
are  readily  misled  by  the  assumption  that  fa- 
miliar words  have  essentially  the  same  meaning 
for  us  all.  Far  from  it.  They  gather  their  form 
and  color  from  our  own  experience.  Like  a 
weather-vane,  they  may  point  east  or  west, 
north  or  south,  according  to  the  wind  that  is 
blowing  on  them.  Father  may  mean  to  the 
street  waif  an  ugly  tyrant  whose  presence  and 
exactions  are  to  be  shunned.  It  may  mean  to  the 
affectionate  and  well-trained  child,  the  most 


The  Lord's  Prayer  21 

constant  and  immediate  expression  of  wisdom 
and  good-will.  It  is  true,  that  by  the  suggestion 
of  contrast,  the  repulsive  parent  may  sometimes 
awaken  the  sense  of  more  perfect  character.  So 
beneficent  is  nature  that  the  dirty  pool  in  one's 
pathway  may  reflect  the  blue  sky.  Yet,  as  a 
general  principle,  the  flavor  of  words,  like  the 
flavor  of  food,  depends  on  the  appetites  and 
experiences  of  those  who  employ  them. 

All  that  is  best  in  human  life  has  been  at  work 
for  centuries  to  furnish  out  this  one  word,  father, 
with  substantial  qualities  and  delightful  associa- 
tions, until  it  has  come  to  stand  for  that  which  is 
central  in  human  welfare.  By  ten  thousand  acts 
of  good-will  we  have  framed  a  ladder  of  human 
affections,  which,  being  set  up,  reaches  into  the 
clouds,  and  on  which,  as  in  the  vision  of  Jacob, 
angels  ascend  and  descend,  bearing  our  thoughts 
from  the  seen  to  the  unseen,  from  the  highest 
wealth  of  the  present  life  to  a  reciprocal  wealth 
in  a  future  life.  No  parent  has  rendered  parental 
duty,  and  no  child,  filial  duty;  neither  of  them 
has  entered  into  household  love,  without  uniting 
earth  to  heaven  and  giving  us  the  key  of  both. 
We  draw  near  God  when  we  shape  human  affec- 
tions into  the  fine  art  of  life. 

The  ideas  most  prominent  in  fatherhood,  which 


22  The  Lord's  Prayer 

stands  for  the  parental  relation  on  both  sides — 
father  and  mother — are  protection,  guidance,  and 
good-will.  The  world  is  full  of  protection,  not 
obviously  and  blindly  so,  but  as  its  deepest  and 
most  reliable  relation.  All  the  marvelous  life 
of  the  world  has  grown  up  under  the  hand  of  the 
world.  When  we  think  of  protection,  it  is  chiefly 
physical  protection,  but  God's  protection  runs 
through  the  whole  circuit  of  our  being,  physical, 
intellectual,  and  spiritual,  and  so  becomes  a  very 
complex  fact.  We  are  not  enclosed  in  a  shell 
thick  enough  to  shed  all  blows,  and  so  ready  to 
suspend  and  to  smother  our  reflective  powers.  It 
is  not  a  passive,  but  an  active  state  that  God 
contemplates  and  watches  over.  We  are  girt 
about  with  a  diversified  and  magnificent  world 
as  the  condition  of  our  safety,  and  our  safety 
includes  all  the  ministrations  of  life. 

This  protection  passes  at  once  into  the  higher 
function  of  guidance.  We  must  be  safe,  but  we 
must  be  safe  moving  among  great  events  and 
taking  part  in  them.  This  safety  abolishes 
indolence  and  the  hasty  demand  for  pleasure, 
and  sends  us  out  with  girded  loins  on  the  highway 
of  effort.  But  guidance  no  more  than  protection 
is  thrust  upon  us.  It  is  the  response  of  all  within 
us  to  all  without  us,  of  the  mind  to  wisdom  and  of 


The  Lord's  Prayer  23 

wisdom  to  the  mind.  It  is  the  play  of  the  world 
upon  the  spirit  and  of  the  spirit  upon  the  world, 
the  possibilities  of  life  springing  up  between  them. 
Because  we  are  guided  so  gently,  so  much  from 
within,  and  into  ways  so  exhaustless,  we  are  apt 
to  feel  that  we  are  not  guided  at  all.  We  are 
waiting  to  be  picked  up  and  carried  somewhere, 
when  the  carrying  process  moves  the  body  only 
and  not  the  mind.  God  gives  us  a  guidance  that 
impels  us  forward  in  the  intellectual  and  spiritual 
field,  and  so  is  inseparable  from  our  own  vision. 
The  whole  process  is  vital.  Our  activity  and  the 
activity  of  God  toward  us  are  as  indivisible  as  are 
the  air  and  the  lungs  in  breathing. 

But  that  which  especially  compacts  parental 
relation,  and  makes  its  protection  and  guidance 
nutritive,  is  affection.  This  is  as  the  mantle 
which  the  shell-fish  casts  over  the  growing  parts  and 
which  renders  them  perfect  in  form,  texture,  and 
color.  It  is  affection  which  distinguishes  parental 
aid  from  other  forms  of  help,  and  causes  the  help 
to  spring  up  as  mutual  pleasure.  It  is  on  this 
footing  that  the  Lord's  Prayer  places  us.  We 
come  as  children,  with  the  claims,  the  hopes,  and 
the  love  of  children.  It  matters  not  if  our  thoughts 
are  confused,  and  our  asking  inadequate.  We 
have  found  wisdom  and  love,  whose  very  office 


24  The  Lord's  Prayer 

it  is  to  correct  these  failures,  to  give  shelter,  and 
to  turn  shelter  into  rest.  As  the  expert  swimmer 
flings  himself  upon  the  deep  water,  we  cast  our- 
selves on  the  large  mercies  of  God,  feeling  that  the 
good-will  and  the  wisdom  united  in  them  are 
sure  to  buoy  us  up. 

OUR  Father.  No  man  knows  with  whom  he 
may  stand,  praying  unto  God,  but  with  whomso- 
ever he  stands  his  first  word  is  OUR,  OUR  Father. 
One  faith  and  one  relation  unites  him  and  them 
inseparably.  There  are  no  closer  unions  than 
those  of  the  household,  unions  that  all  our  lives 
are  spent  in  translating  into  spiritual  terms.  To 
call  the  same  man  father,  the  same  woman  mother, 
means  the  summation  of  obligations.  If  we  are 
of  the  same  household,  we  have  essentially  the 
same  rights  in  it.  That  which  is  the  source  of  all 
parental  love  is  equally  for  all.  If  God  is  our 
common  Father,  the  world  is  our  common  home, 
to  hold  and  to  enjoy  with  constant  reference  to 
each  other.  Traveling  on  the  mountains  I  have 
occasionally  met  the  notice,  "No  trespassing  on 
these  premises  allowed."  How  came  this  man 
to  own  so  much  of  the  world?  By  what  right 
does  he  shut  me  into  the  highway?  The  only 
exclusion  that  has  in  it  any  rightfulness  is  an 
exclusion  for  the  common  benefit,  a  keeping  off 


the  grass  that  the  grass  may  not  be  trodden  into 
mire  but  may  remain  a  carpet,  spread  by  the  di- 
vine hand  for  us  all. 

What  a  thing  it  is  to  stand  before  God  with  the 
whole  human  household,  and  say,  Our  Father! 
What  a  springing  up  of  rights  and  duties  on  all 
sides !  What  a  sense  of  the  universality  of  human 
welfare!  What  a  disclosure  of  the  depths  of 
divine  love!  What  a  pouring  out  of  affections  in 
full  tide  in  the  thousand  channels  which  belong 
to  them! 

If  we  are  able  to  say  with  any  fair  apprehension 
these  brief  introductory  words,  Our  Father  which 
art  in  heaven,  we  have  the  attitude  of  prayer. 
We  have  united  ourselves  one  and  all  by  invisible 
bonds  to  the  invisible  source  of  strength.  The 
words  that  follow  may  well  be  few.  The  vital 
relation  is  established.  We  are  brothers  and 
God  is  our  Father.  All  spiritual  movement  be- 
comes assured.  We  stand  in  the  porch  of  the 
temple.  Its  peace  has  overtaken  us. 

The  words  which  follow  are  hardly  more  than 
the  amplification  of  these  first  words,  the  opening 
into  blossom  of  the  compact  bud  of  sonship.  The 
mind  full  of  so  comprehensive  an  idea  cannot 
fritter  itself  away  in  phraseology.  The  whole 
truth  is  with  us.  The  atmosphere  is  full  of  it. 


26  The  Lord's  Prayer 

We  need  only  to  stand  still  in  the  divine  presence. 
Speech  is  meant  for  small  things.  It  is  an  im- 
pertinent reduction  of  large  things. 

How  certainly  must  a  prayer,  so  begun,  be 
answered.  The  mind  and  heart  are  made  at 
once  receptive  of  all  spiritual  good.  The  plant 
has  spread  its  leaves  in  the  warm  sunlight  and 
how  can  it  do  otherwise  than  grow!  No  new 
thing,  no  great  thing,  needs  to  be  done;  only  the 
blessedness  of  what  is  must  come  to  be  felt;  only 
the  response  of  living  things  to  one  another,  pro- 
vided for  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  must 
have  way.  By  asking  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
we  are  lifted  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  by 
seeking  for  the  will  of  God,  the  will  of  God  flows 
into  us  and  is  itself  accomplished.  We  understand 
what  Christ  means  when  he  says,  "He  that  asketh 
receiveth,  he  that  seeketh  findeth,  and  he  that 
knocketh,  to  him  it  is  opened."  We  are  uneasy 
in  the  world,  we  worry  and  we  find  no  rest,  be- 
cause the  vital  connection  has  not  been  established, 
because  we  have  never  quite  said,  Our  Father. 
Once  we  find  this  living  surface,  and  receive 
life  from  it,  we  are  as  restful  as  the  infant  on 
the  bosom  of  the  mother.  The  whole  world 
nourishes  us,  and  we  go  to  sleep  in  its  arms.  It 
has  been  made  for  us,  as  certainly  as  we  have 


The  Lord's  Prayer  27 

been  made  for  it.  The  purpose  of  God  embraces 
us,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  gathers  us  in,  and 
the  grand  procedure  of  events  goes  on  its  way 
with  that  absolute  and  comprehensive  certainty 
which  is  the  foundation  of  all  truth.  All  that 
is  best  and  most  enjoyable  in  human  relations  is 
present  to  speak  to  us  of  heavenly  relations,  and 
to  prepare  us  for  them.  We  sum  up  all  good,  pres- 
ent and  future,  in  words  interpreted  by  the  best 
things  we  have  known.  Our  Father  which  art  in 
heaven — is  this  the  prophecy  and  fulfillment  of  our 
en  tire  lives? 

HALLOWED  BE  THY  NAME 

A  name  has  very  little  more  direct  connection 
with  the  person  designated  by  it  than  has  the 
chalk  mark  with  the  stick  of  timber  to  which  we 
have  applied  it.  Both  are  merely  guides  to  our 
thoughts.  Yet  so  spiritual  is  man,  so  readily  does 
the  invisible  world  take  on  form,  that  the  name 
conies  to  stand  for  a  great  personality — and  all  the 
real  and  imaginary  characteristics  that  are  at- 
tached to  it.  Such  a  name  as  Plato  becomes  a 
milestone  in  the  progress  of  philosophy,  like  one 
of  those  conspicuous  crosses  which  the  English 
built  where  a  famous  funeral  cortege  had  rested. 
Names  are  the  rings  and  reef -lines  by  which  the 


28  The  Lord's  Prayer 

otherwise  flapping  sails  are  held  to  the  mast  and 
boom,  and  so  made  to  tug  at  the  hull  buried  in  the 
sea.  We  catch  the  winds  in  the  spiritual  world  by 
virtue  of  the  heroes  who  have  gone  before  us.  If 
these  names  should  slip  their  hold,  how  many 
noble  incentives  would  be  lost,  frayed  into  noth- 
ingness like  a  flag  worn  out  by  ceaseless,  aimless 
motion.  It  is  the  slightly,  yet  permanently  sensu- 
ous character  of  words  that  causes  them  to  be- 
come the  center  of  so  much  spiritual  propagation, 
enabling  them  to  loop  up  and  to  hold  together  all 
that  is  significant  and  attractive  in  human  history. 

The  spiritual  potency  of  names  has  been  es- 
pecially conspicuous  in  religion.  Mystery  and 
reverence  and  awe  have  gathered  about  the  desig- 
nations of  God,  as  if  they  were  in  some  way  a 
condensed  expression  of  his  attributes,  as  if  the 
stupidity  and  spite  of  men  could  in  no  manner 
be  so  plainly  vented  as  in  the  heedless  use  of 
these  names,  carrying  such  a  load  of  suggestion. 
Not  only  could  the  name  of  God  be  profaned,  this 
profanity,  it  was  thought,  took  hold  of  the  mind 
of  God  in  some  startling  way.  "Thou  shalt  not 
take  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain,  for 
the  Lord  will  not  hold  him  guiltless  who  taketh 
his  name  in  vain." 

The  third  commandment  affords  a  good  illus- 


The  Lord's  Prayer  29 

tration  of  what,  from  one  point  of  view,  may 
have  little  foundation — in  this  case  the  extreme 
awe  of  a  name — and  may,  from  another  point  of 
view,  become  a  command  of  primary  importance. 
The  ill-grounded  fear  of  the  name  stood  for  the 
well-grounded  fear  of  God.  The  superstitions  of 
the  world  are  often,  like  other  errors  of  judg- 
ment, the  stepping-stones  by  which  men  move 
onward. 

The  same  association,  in  a  more  general  form, 
enters  into  this  first  petition  of  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Hallowed  be  thy  name.  The  name  is  accepted  as 
the  most  direct  expression  of  personality,  and  the 
prayer  is  that  this  symbol  of  the  divine  presence 
may  be  kept  holy,  and  our  reverence  of  divine 
things  be  made  apparent  in  all  its  uses.  While 
that  which  we  are  to  hallow,  to  keep  holy,  is  figura- 
tively the  name  of  God,  that  which  by  the  inter- 
vention of  this  symbol  we  are  to  keep  holy,  is 
the  plan  and  purpose  of  God  in  the  world.  That 
which  is  constantly  to  be  present  with  us,  as  under- 
lying all  things,  is  the  divine  thought.  This  is  to 
be  arrived  at  reverently,  watched  over  assiduously, 
and  carried  forward  to  its  completion.  We  are  to 
feel  that  we  walk  with  God  in  his  works,  and  have 
a  part  assigned  us  in  their  completion.  We  move, 
therefore,  cautiously,  that  nothing  may  be  missed 


30  The  Lord's  Prayer 

or  marred  in  the  grand  fulfillment.  We  enter  on 
every  undertaking  with  the  sense  that  there  is  a 
divine  law,  a  divine  method,  applicable  to  it,  by 
which  its  inner  force  and  idea  can  be  secured. 
Wherever  we  are,  we  are  there  reverently,  to  ob- 
serve the  great  things  that  are  going  forward,  and 
to  help  them  on.  There  is  one  whole,  and  to  attain 
that  is  holiness.  We  are  no  longer  dealing  with  the 
name  of  God  as  a  word,  but  with  it  as  the  most  im- 
mediate and  sensuous  expression  of  his  presence. 
What  we  have  to  hallow,  and  what  we  are  pray- 
ing may  be  hallowed,  is  the  underlying  thought 
of  God,  the  movement  of  the  world  toward  its 
spiritual  completion. 

The  sin  of  profanity  lies  chiefly  in  its  reaction  on 
the  mind  guilty  of  it.  It  brings  disturbance  to  our 
knowledge  of  God's  ways,  to  our  apprehension  of 
good  and  evil  in  the  world.  It  is  the  recoil  of  our 
thoughts  against  themselves  as  we  strike  against 
God's  goodness;  a  benumbing  contact  from  which 
we  do  not  readily  recover. 

Sacrilege  is  a  sin  of  large  proportions,  present  in 
all,  even  in  the  grossest  forms  of  faith;  yet  a  sin 
greatly  misapprehended.  What  are  the  things 
that  we  are  to  keep  whole  because  the  divine  mind 
is  in  them?  All  the  things  which,  by  one  form  of 
unfolding  or  another,  one  species  of  growth  or 


The  Lord's  Prayer  31 

another,  are  being  gathered  together  and  harmon- 
ized in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  This  steady 
evolution,  which  is  in  so  many  ways  our  study, 
in  which  our  lives  and  the  labors  of  our  lives  are 
wrapped  up,  serves,  from  beginning  to  end,  to 
declare  to  us  the  divine  mind ;  to  put  us  with  it  on 
terms  of  sympathy  and  participation,  by  which  we 
and  it  and  all  things  are  hallowed. 

The  physical  world  takes  on  ever  a  more  com- 
plete expression,  passes  through  fresh  creative 
phases  into  more  admirable  forms — fertile  plains, 
pleasant  fields,  hills  and  mountains  carved  into 
shape — and  so  comes  into  possession  of  that 
abounding  use  and  redundant  beauty  that  are 
everywhere  enthroned  in  it.  It  is  sacrilege  to  mar 
the  world,  to  push  it  back  into  chaos,  as  if  God's 
life  were  not  in  it.  The  gulch  miner,  who  tears 
the  world  into  shreds,  who  undoes  in  a  few  hours 
the  constructive  work  of  centuries,  and  who  leaves 
behind  him  a  confusion  of  all  form  and  a  waste  of 
all  permanent  wealth  that  he  may  gather  the  few 
particles  of  gold  scattered  in  the  deposit,  is  sacri- 
legious, and  the  verbal  profanity  which  is  so  likely 
to  attend  on  the  process  is  only  the  audible  utter- 
ance of  that  stream  of  desecrating  thought  which 
runs  through  his  life.  The  spring  and  autumnal 
fires  that  waste  our  mountains  are  as  much  sacri- 


32  The  Lord's  Prayer 

lege  as  the  smoke  of  an  unclean  sacrifice  on  an 
altar.  Though  the  saints  have  often  devoted  the 
world  to  a  final  purgation  of  fire,  and  though  the 
sinners  would  long  since  have  burned  it  to  ashes 
were  it  less  inflammable,  it  yet  remains  a  divine 
creation,  ever  taking  on  new,  superb,  and  bene- 
ficent expression.  He  who  mars  the  world  or 
thwarts  its  fulfillment  or  fills  it  with  his  own 
rubbish  has  not  yet  come  to  the  meaning  of  the 
petition,  Hallowed  be  thy  name. 

The  first,  most  visible,  varied,  and  universal 
gift  to  the  world,  and  gift  of  the  world  to  us,  is 
the  vegetable  kingdom.  Here  the  process  of  deco- 
ration commences,  the  rocky  framework  is  cov- 
ered, and  the  modest  flower  and  the  majestic  tree 
take  their  places,  perfecting  those  moods  of  grand- 
eur and  seclusion  in  which  nature  abounds.  We 
owe  a  certain  spite  to  people  who  waste  the  flowers 
or  devastate  the  forests,  stripping  away  the  gar- 
ments with  which  the  world  has  clothed  itself. 
This  is  the  temper  of  the  human  cub,  the  evil- 
minded  boy,  who  looks  both  ways  to  see  if  any 
eye  is  on  him,  and  then,  in  the  sheer  wantonness 
of  his  vulgar  soul,  proceeds  to  mar  every  fitting 
thing  within  his  reach.  It  is  against  such  pro- 
cedure in  the  man  and  boy  that  the  whole  heart 
cries  out,  Hallowed  be  thy  name,  for  thy  name  is 


The  Lord's  Prayer  33 

beauty  and  life.  Not  until  this  acclamation  be- 
comes native  to  us  shall  we  so  much  as  reach  the 
threshold  of  a  divine  life. 

When  we  come  to  the  animal  kingdom,  fellow- 
ship gathers  depth.  Sympathy  means  pleasure  on 
both  sides.  Injury  means  pain  here  and  brutal- 
ity there.  The  murderous  inflictions  of  men  upon 
animals,  and  the  cry  of  agony  that  goes  with  them, 
are  a  creeping  undertone,  a  subdued  curse,  that 
tell  of  the  diabolical  discord  of  the  world,  a  tearing 
asunder  of  the  garment  of  peace  with  which  God 
is  striving  to  clothe  it. 

When  the  pleasure  of  men  is  found  in  the 
wanton  destruction  of  animal  life,  and  the  knowl- 
edge of  man  in  the  deliberate  and  prolonged  tor- 
tures of  vivisection;  when  from  every  spiracle  in 
the  spiritual  world  there  still  come  sulphurous 
fumes  as  if  only  a  thin  conventionalism  of  soft 
words  covered  the  molten  hearts  of  men,  and  their 
passions  were  not  yet  so  far  cooled  down  that  they 
could  enter  into  the  joy  of  living,  the  soul  is  de- 
secrated, and  with  desecrating  tread  of  pride  and 
scorn  and  cruelty  goes  trampling  down  the  good 
and  loving  and  beautiful  things  God  has  made. 
Not  until  we  adopt  everything  in  its  uses,  and 
cherish  it  in  its  own  temper  and  kindle  with  it  our 
sympathies  and  draw  from  it  our  pleasures,  can  we, 


34  The  Lord's  Prayer 

as  in  the  beautiful  fable  of  our  first  parents,  walk 
with  God  in  the  garden,  and  share  the  eternal  peace 
of  his  presence.  Cruelty,  no  matter  what  our 
excuse  for  it,  is  the  unpardonable  profanity  of  a 
spirit  not  yet  touched,  nor  waiting  to  be  touched, 
by  the  love  of  God. 

Rising  one  step  higher,  we  come  to  human  life, 
and  here  our  profanity  is  so  great  and  so  varied 
that  it  seems  just  to  have  commenced;  we  seem  to 
have  forgotten  all  that  has  gone  before  and  the 
blood  with  which  we  have  already  sprinkled  the 
world.  Profanity  is  much  or  little  according  to 
the  nature  of  that  which  is  desecrated.  We  can 
defile  an  altar  because  it  is  a  place  of  sacrifice. 
We  can  desecrate  a  temple  because  it  is  set  apart 
for  worship.  We  can  treat  the  child,  the  woman, 
the  man  most  profanely  because  in  them  the  grace 
of  God  is  struggling  upward  to  its  fulfillment. 
When  men  have  entered  on  the  race  for  wealth, 
the  tyranny  of  child-labor  has  commenced,  and  the 
hope  of  life  has  been  drunk  up  at  once  like  dew 
by  the  coming  heat  of  a  parching  day.  The  eager 
hunger  of  men  has  so  fed  upon  the  grace  of  women 
that  that  which  was  meant  to  be  highest  has  often 
dropped  lowest,  and  those  who  should  have  walked 
in  garments  white  and  pure,  have  been  sprinkled 
with  the  mire  of  the  streets.  Affections,  which 


The  Lord's  Prayer  35 

are  the  tenderness  of  divine  love  finding  its  way 
in  human  life,  have  become  the  symbols  of  weak- 
ness, the  means  of  betrayal,  the  open  window  at 
which  the  burglar  climbs  in.  As  the  colors  of 
flowers  show  what  light  can  do  in  shaping  things 
to  itself,  so  the  purity  and  depth  of  womanly  love 
is  God's  revelation  of  what  is  inmost  in  his  own 
mind.  Here  profanity  can  become  devilish,  and 
desecration  make  an  end.  We  pluck  the  plumage 
of  the  white  dove,  we  break  its  wings,  we  blind  its 
eyes,  and  then  fling  back  in  derision  this  work  of 
God. 

The  apostle  says,  "  Know  ye  not  that  ye  are  the 
temple  of  God?"  From  this  temple  we  drive  out 
the  indwelling  spirit.  How  completely  among  men 
have  we  seen  this  profanity  accomplished.  Oaths 
swarm  out  at  the  lips  like  unclean  birds  disturbed 
in  their  haunts.  Decay  and  filth  and  parasitic 
life,  all  the  evil  brood  of  death,  claim  the  man  as 
their  own,  and  the  scavengers  of  the  world  hasten 
to  resolve  him  into  those  ultimate  elements 
that  are  always  pure;  nature,  baffled  by  man's 
profanity,  goes  back  to  the  beginning,  and  starts 
once  more  the  creative  process.  Is  not  this  the 
purgation  of  fire  to  which  all  the  rubbish  of  the 
world,  dead  branches  lopped  off,  trees  cut  down 
without  fruit,  are  hastening? 


36  The  Lord's  Prayer 

Perhaps  the  deepest,  most  comprehensive  pro- 
fanity which  comes  to  us  is  that  of  the  home,  pre- 
eminently the  profanity  of  the  slums.  In  a  single 
room,  crowded  with  inmates,  with  fetid  air,  dirt, 
and  destitution,  every  possible  germ  of  a  higher 
life  is  trampled  under  foot.  This  is  the  profanity 
of  a  great  city,  so  anxious  for  wealth  and  refine- 
ment that  it  utterly  forgets  the  degradation  which 
this  eager  pursuit  is  leaving  behind  it. 

The  temper  which  looks  upon  living  things  as 
they  tremble  in  the  creative  hand  and  feels  the  in- 
coming power  as  holy,  and  prays  that  they  may  be 
kept  holy,  is  the  first  fruit  of  that  sensitive,  receptive 
mind  by  which  we  pass  into  spiritual  life.  The 
prayer,  Hallowed  be  thy  name,  thus  means  our 
emotional  mastery  of  the  world,  our  power  to  see 
it  as  it  is.  The  poetic  temper  is  the  apprehending 
temper,  and  its  highest  expression  is  in  the  spirit- 
ual world.  The  forms  of  life  gain  in  mastery  by 
virtue  of  perceptive  power.  While  man  has  the 
largest  circle  of  sensuous  faculties,  and,  far  more 
than  this,  much  greater  reflective  power  with  which 
to  drive  them  forward,  there  are  special  organs, 
like  those  of  scent  and  sight,  which  penetrate  much 
farther,  and  call  out  action  much  more  quickly  in 
animals  than  in  men.  Among  the  marvels  of  our 
time  are  the  discoveries,  such  as  wireless  telegra- 


The  Lord's  Prayer  37 

phy,  which  go  to  show  how  much  more  subtle  and 
extended  are  the  mediums  of  intercourse  in  the 
world  than  we  had  supposed.  We  supplement  our 
senses  with  lines  of  intelligence  which  lace  together, 
in  one  throbbing  life,  the  entire  circuit  of  our  globe. 
The  early  conception  seems  to  be  fulfilled,  that  the 
world  is  one  living  thing. 

Spiritually  perceptive  power  waits  chiefly  to  be 
acquired,  but  we  may  well  believe  that  its  extent 
and  delicacy  and  quickness  of  response  are  pro- 
portioned to  the  preeminence  of  the  relations 
involved  in  it.  All  that  obscures  or  mars  the 
mechanism  of  thought  narrows  in  our  spiritual 
apprehension.  Profanity  is  of  the  nature  of  vul- 
garity, vulgarity  which  constantly  thrusts  into 
the  foreground  some  sensuous  impression,  crowd- 
ing out  therewith  the  deeper  renderings  of  life. 
A  man  may  be  habitually  profane  in  speech,  not 
because  he  is  spiritually  defiant,  but  because  he 
wishes,  under  the  custom  of  life,  to  make  emphatic 
and  propellent  language  which  would  otherwise 
be  stale  and  vapid.  When  one  swears  at  a  mule 
he  is  prodding  him  with  the  goad  nearest  at  hand. 
Much  of  the  profanity  which  we  have  been  taught 
to  hold  in  horror,  is  a  comparatively  venial  fault, 
an  artificial  sin.  No  man  is  directly  injured 
thereby.  No  creature  of  God  is  outraged.  It 


38  The  Lord's  Prayer 

is  the  spiritual  stupidity  that  goes  with  it  which 
gives  it  its  deadening  character.  A  Puritan  father 
might  have  been  shocked  at  a  profane  word 
spoken  by  his  son,  and  yet  himself  profaning  ani- 
mal life  with  cruelty  or  child  life  with  harshness, 
thought  nothing  of  it.  The  thing  itself,  profan- 
ity, might  have  had  less  weight  with  him  than 
the  mere  appearance  of  it  in  language.  The 
injunction  against  profanity  is  the  symbol  above 
the  door  by  which  we  are  warned  to  enter  with 
unsandaled  feet  and  heedful  movement  (into  all  the 
ways  of  approach  unto  God. 

I  was  once  in  the  Sistine  Chapel  studying  the 
frescoes  of  Raphael  in  company  with  a  gentle- 
man, a  politician,  who  had  little  interest  in  them. 
After  a  moment's  listless  observation  he  turned 
abruptly  to  me  and  pointing  to  a  representation 
of  God  the  Father  inquired  what  old  gentleman 
that  was.  Thus  the  too  gross  temper  of  art  got 
a  still  more  harsh  expression  in  speech.  The 
invisible,  eternal,  all-pervasive  spirit  took  on 
abruptly  the  form  of  an  old  man,  possibly  of 
Irish  extraction.  Yet  this  man  was  an  intelligent 
American  citizen.  He  had  been  Secretary  of  the 
Interior — it  must  have  been  of  the  very  interior. 
He  was  only  suffering  a  little  from  that  national 
vulgarity  which  is  unable  to  distinguish  values,  and 


The  Lord's  Prayer  39 

to  keep  each  in  its  own  place.  We  often  meet  this 
obtuse  feeling  in  our  public  buildings  and  legislative 
halls.  We  take  to  ourselves  a  certain  pleasure  in 
abusing  a  beautiful  thing,  as  if  we  thereby  got  an 
advantage  over  it.  In  the  California  House  of 
Representatives  a  member,  who  stood  for  two 
counties,  occasionally  threw  his  legs  over  his  desk, 
and  enjoyed  this  conspicuous  ease  as  a  fitting 
emolument  of  a  free  man.  The  Speaker,  feeling 
the  humor  of  the  situation,  made  a  sketch  of  the 
member  in  this  position,  putting  upon  the  soles 
of  his  two  feet  the  names  of  the  two  counties 
he  represented,  Colusa,  Tehama.  The  man  who 
can  thrust  in  the  face  of  his  fellow-citizens  the 
mud  of  two  counties  is  not  to  be  lightly  regarded. 

I  ought  not  to  approach  so  near  our  own  dese- 
cration and  make  no  mention  of  it.  I  happened 
into  the  carpenter  shop.  A  door  had  been  brought 
down  from  Morgan  Hall  for  repair.  Some  young 
man  had  evidently  thrust  holes  in  it  with  the 
ferrule  of  a  heavy  cane.  It  would  be  a  relief  to 
hear  such  a  man  swear,  as  a  far  more  conventional 
and  superficial  profanity,  as  far  less  private  and 
personal  and  polluting. 

When  the  secret  thoughts  of  God  begin  to  in- 
scribe themselves  on  the  world  before  our  eyes, 
when  they  become  vocal  in  the  flow  of  events, 


40  The  Lord's  Prayer 

when  they  are  ready  to  gather  and  to  marshal  men 
of  all  conditions  and  all  races  for  a  triumphal  march 
toward  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  we  shall  lose  every 
disposition  to  regard  anything  or  any  person  in 
fellowship  with  the  divine  mind  profanely  or  to 
fling  words  of  contempt  at  those  who  have  caught 
up  this  rhythmic  movement  heavenward. 

The  reverential  temper  is  the  seeing  temper, 
and  so  the  receptive  temper.  We  are  able  to  ac- 
cept the  magnificent  things  the  world  has  to  give. 
Our  hands  are  extended,  not  to  grab,  nor  even  to 
get  wealth,  but  to  hold  the  spiritual  treasure  so 
freely  bestowed  upon  us.  It  hardly  matters 
whether  the  divine  bounty  reaches  the  palm,  the 
palm  is  still  stretched  out  toward  it.  The  giving 
power  of  the  world  transcends  all  our  measure- 
ments and  all  our  thoughts.  We  feel  sure  of  im- 
mortality as  time  granted  us  wherein  to  gather 
this  harvest,  a  harvest  with  which  the  fields  are 
whitening  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach.  We  have  a 
certified  lien  upon  the  wealth  of  the  world,  and  that 
wealth  comes  pouring  in,  and  breaking  at  our  feet 
like  the  inexhaustible  waves  of  the  ocean.  The 
poverty  of  profanity  has  long  since  left  our  hearts. 
A  reverential  wonder  abides  with  us  that  we  have 
to  deal  with  things  so  great,  approachable  in 
waysjso  sublime. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  41 

Our  ability  to  help  the  world  has  its  source  in 
this  same  reverential  temper,  the  sense  of  the  in- 
numerable and  immeasurable  things  that  may 
be  offered  to  men.  The  part  of  the  poet  or  the 
prophet  falls  to  us,  simply  because  we  see  and  fore- 
see the  divine  goodness.  The  plain  before  us  may 
seem  dry  and  barren,  but  we  know  the  climate,  the 
fertility  of  the  soil,  and  whence  the  water  is  to 
come  which  is  to  make  it  a  fruitful  paradise.  Be- 
ing directed  of  God  into  pleasant  paths  we  can  di- 
rect our  fellow-men  into  the  same  paths.  As  one 
on  a  watch-tower,  catching  sight  of  the  banners  of 
those  hastening  to  the  rescue,  we  are  able  to  speak 
the  word  which  fills  at  once  all  hearts  with  the 
gladness  of  victory. 

Moody  was  a  prophet  to  the  masses  of  men,  not 
by  virtue  of  philosophy,  but  by  means  of  an  intense 
spirit  of  reverence.  He  felt  the  gathering,  grow- 
ing force  of  the  divine  plan  and  he  announced  it  as 
he  saw  it,  and  men  believed  him.  They  too  be- 
gan to  feel  the  undercurrent  drawing  them  into 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  When  we  can  say,  as 
our  first  spontaneous  petition,  Hallowed  be  thy 
name,  the  everlasting  gates  are  lifted  up,  and  we 
and  all  begin  to  enter  in.  We  cast  ourselves  on 
holiness,  and  its  buoyant  force  is  at  once  felt. 

If  we  think  of  the  world  meanly  and  speak  of  it 


slightingly;  if  we  lie  under  all  the  brooding  pro- 
cesses of  earth  and  air  and  sky  like  so  many  addled 
eggs;  if  as  the  dumb,  dull  boy  we  can  say  nothing 
fittingly  and  so  swear,  it  is  simply  because  the 
germs  of  the  divine  life  are  not  awakened  in  us. 
Reverence  is  the  medium  of  revelation;  the  at- 
mosphere which  receives  and  diffuses  light;  the 
sense  of  things  as  they  are  and  are  to  be  in  the 
grand  spiritual  world  which  God  is  creating.  Not 
until  we  can  pray,  Hallowed  be  thy  name,  can  we 
feel  that  the  world  is  holy,  or  lend  help  in  making 
it  holy.  This  petition  is  the  introduction  to  all 
spiritual  life. 

THY  KINGDOM  COME 

The  road  of  revelation,  like  the  road  of  knowl- 
edge, is  a  long  one.  If  we  pause  anywhere  in  it, 
the  things  we  seem  to  have  acquired  begin  to 
escape  us,  to  become  formal  and  dead.  If  we 
persistently  pursue  it,  our  impressions,  as  those  of 
a  dissolving  view,  are  enlivened  by  all  that  have 
gone  before,  and  carry  over  an  increased  interest 
to  those  which  are  to  follow. 

It  is  often  made  a  ground  of  reproach  that  our 
conceptions  of  God  are  so  narrow,  so  human; 
or,  as  it  is  sometimes  put  in  one  overwhelming 
word,  so  anthropomorphic.  Yet  what  other  result 


The  Lord's  Prayer  43 

should  be  anticipated,  or  could  arise?  Since  we 
are  men,  we  shall  doubtless  think  and  feel  as  men 
think  and  feel.  Nor  is  there  any  discouragement 
in  this  if  we  remember  to  how  much  purpose  men 
have  thought  and  felt.  What  other  result  should 
be  desired,  or  could  be  anticipated,  than  that  we 
should  think  about  God  as  men  may  think  about 
him,  and  be  blest  by  the  thoughts?  Anthropo- 
morphic? yes  indeed,  because  we  are  only  some- 
what in  the  image  of  God.  We  are  children, 
and  our  ideas  are  childish;  but  the  childish  idea 
may  make  way  for  the  manly  one,  and  is  just  as 
much  a  medium  of  growth  as  is  the  tottering  step 
of  the  child  its  only  access  to  the  firm  foothold  of 
the  adult.  The  danger  of  our  restricted  notions 
does  not  commence  until  we  begin  to  hesitate,  and 
no  longer  shift  and  expand  our  thoughts  to  take  in 
the  larger  view. 

The  grotesque  idol  is  a  step  in  the  ascent  to  God, 
the  earliest  assertion  that  the  visible  world  does 
not  exhaust  the  world,  but  that  there  are  potencies 
which  we  have  occasion  to  recognize,  which  lie 
back  of  things,  back  of  sensuous  quality.  We 
become  idolaters  only  when  the  invisible  shrinks 
into  this  miserable  similitude  of  an  image.  Then 
the  image  itself  begins  to  become  diabolical. 
The  fetish,  the  idol,  the  picture,  the  symbol  may 


44  The  Lord's  Prayer 

be  in  our  unfolding,  like  the  parting  of  the  scales 
which  enclose  the  bud,  the  first  evidence  that  the 
inner  life  is  beginning  to  push.  All  our  con- 
ceptions of  God,  to  the  very  end,  will  be  found  too 
narrow,  too  human,  and  will  give  occasion  for 
better  images  and  more  adequate  ideas.  The 
mind  is  all  the  while  growing  into  and  taking  pos- 
session of  a  profound  and  limitless  universe.  Only 
one  thing  is  to  be  dreaded,  the  arrest  of  life,  its 
turning  aside  from  its  true  development,  a  halting 
at  some  intermediate  point  at  which  we  begin  to 
lose  the  old  without  gaining  the  new. 

A  similar  line  of  thought  is  applicable  to  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Our  earlier  conceptions  of 
it  are  sure  to  be  inadequate  and  may  easily  be 
ridiculous.  The  unbeliever  may  think  he  has  made 
a  telling  point  when  he  reminds  us  how  tedious 
the  songs,  the  hosannas  of  heaven  must  become. 
Such  criticisms  are  merely  fitted  to  push  us  off 
the  stone  on  which  we  have  been  too  long  seated 
and  to  compel  us  to  renew  our  journey.  Streets 
of  gold  and  gates  of  pearl,  all  the  pleasures  which 
address  the  senses,  may  help  to  usher  in  the  idea 
of  heaven;  but  if  we  stop  with  them,  we  and  they 
will  sink  back  into  sensuous  indulgence,  and  our 
heaven  be  swallowed  up  once  more  in  the  abyss 
of  unpurified  pleasures. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  45 

The  very  notion  of  a  kingdom  is  a  human  con- 
ception, yet  it  is  one  so  pliant,  so  capable  of  ex- 
pansion, as  to  fit  it  to  render  protracted  service. 
A  kingdom  is  the  most  simple  form  which  the  state 
assumes.  While  a  kingdom  constantly  falls  short 
of  its  true  service,  it  is  manifestly  intended  to  se- 
cure unity,  harmony,  and  concurrent  welfare  over 
the  entire  area  to  which  it  pertains.  If  the  best 
man  be  king,  his  counsel  and  guidance  aim  at  this 
result,  and  the  kingdom  becomes  the  earliest  form 
of  a  self-sustaining  and  prosperous  state.  This 
image  of  a  kingdom,  so  familiar  to  men  in  their  en- 
tire history,  thus  becomes  the  guide  of  thought  in 
all  reconciliation  of  men  with  men,  in  the  successful 
combination  of  men  for  the  widest,  highest  ends, 
and  we  have  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  as  the  trans- 
fer of  this  harmony  to  our  spiritual  relations.  And 
yet  how  much  purging  and  purifying  of  the  notion 
of  a  king,  how  much  submission  of  the  people, 
indolent  and  passionate  and  selfish,  to  the  general 
welfare,  what  an  over-enlarged  apprehension  of 
what  the  public  welfare  includes  are  required  be- 
fore the  words,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  can  be 
freighted  with  their  true  meaning,  and  can  convey 
to  us  a  sense  of  the  grace  of  God  about  to  be  freely 
exercised  toward  men!  We  must  climb  slowly, 
patiently  up,  up,  through  all  failures,  perversions, 


46  The  Lord's  Prayer 

and  narrow  forms  of  government,  still  up,  up  into 
the  divine  wisdom  and  goodness,  before  we  can 
enter,  as  we  should,  into  the  prayer,  Thy  kingdom 
come;  before  we  can  be  helped,  as  we  should  be,  in 
our  daily  labor  by  the  certainty  that  this  king- 
dom is  coming,  and  shall  come  completely,  in  the 
world.  We  must  have,  as  the  condition  of  prayer, 
some  suitable  apprehension  of  this  kingdom,  some 
sense  of  its  corrective  and  creative  power,  some 
conviction  that  it  is  included  in  the  ongoing  of 
things,  and  that  neither  our  thought  concerning 
it  nor  labor  for  it  is  lost  in  an  empty  idea.  The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  must  be  to  us  an  all-compre- 
hensive good,  gathering  up  our  wants  and  the 
wants  of  our  fellow-men  in  perfect  fulfillment. 
Thus  only  can  we  pour  all  our  desire  and  all  our 
labor  and  all  our  life  into  the  petition,  feeling  that 
our  prayer  reaches  from  the  center  to  the  circum- 
ference of  human  society  and  human  need  and 
makes  all  sound. 

This  promise  of  the  kingdom,  this  putting  to- 
gether of  its  first  terms,  are  already  in  the  world ; 
and  when  we  ask  for  the  completion  of  this 
creative  work,  we  are  simply  praying  that  what 
is  best  may  become  better,  that  what  is  partial 
may  become  complete,  and  that  the  vision  of 
glory  which  begins  to  appear  in  the  heavens 


The  Lord's  Prayer  47 

may  spread  over  them  and  everywhere  transform 
them. 

We  speak  of  the  mineral  kingdom,  the  vege- 
table kingdom,  the  animal  kingdom,  and  when  we 
go  farther  and  speak  of  the  spiritual  kingdom,  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  we  embrace  and  complete 
the  entire  series.  We  are  not  thinking  of  things 
separate  from  one  another,  but  of  things  which  sus- 
tain and  enlarge  one  another  in  every  imaginable 
way.  We  are  thinking  of  foundations  wide  and 
strong,  of  a  superstructure  suitable  to  them,  of 
decorations  and  uses  which  grow  out  of  them,  and 
of  a  primary  purpose  which  gives  unity  and  beauty 
to  them  all. 

We  call  the  mineral  world  a  kingdom  because 
minerals  take  on  so  many  forms  as  crystals,  while 
all  these  forms  follow  on  under  similar  laws,  be- 
cause they  have  varied  yet  definite  and  permanent 
ways  of  combination,  and  because  they  make  up  in 
quality  and  quantity  a  world  which  is  ready  for  uses, 
so  manifold  and  multiplied.  The  mineral  king- 
dom is  not  indifferent  to  the  vegetable  kingdom, 
the  animal  kingdom,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
arching  over  them  all.  They  are  in  reference  to 
one  another  foundations  and  superstructure.  This 
fitness  in  first  things  for  things  which  are  to  come 
is  partially  hidden  from  us  because  it  is  involved 


48  The  Lord's  Prayer 

in  so  many  familiar  and  commonplace  relations 
and  because  the  higher  is  ever  adapting  itself 
to  the  lower  as  well  as  the  lower  to  the  higher. 
We  do  indeed  make  the  most  of  the  world,  but  that 
should  not  hide  from  us  the  fact  that  the  world 
is  one  of  which  much  can  be  made.  We  build 
our  walls,  but  we  build  them  of  material  ready 
to  our  hand.  Minerals,  in  quantity  and  quality, 
have  relation  to  the  wants  of  man,  and  they  are 
already  so  built  together  as  to  give  a  frame- 
work of  support  to  his  labors.  We  may  wish 
more  of  one  kind  and  less  of  another,  but  we 
get  along  wonderfully  well  with  what  we  have  of 
each.  Our  workshop  is  abundantly  furnished 
with  material,  and  yet  the  law  of  labor  is  not  set 
aside.  The  world  in  its  first  construction  is  a 
kingdom,  put  together  with  a  far-reaching  antici- 
pation of  consequences.  Any  extensive  change  in 
its  materials  would  affect  the  whole  history  of 
events,  and  make  the  record  with  which  we  are 
so  familiar  very  different.  The  world  rules  us  and 
we  rule  it,  and  out  of  this  reciprocal  action  come 
results  fortunate  and  unfortunate  in  the  measure 
in  which  we  bring  wisdom  to  our  task. 

In  a  yet  more  complete  form  is  the  vegetable 
world  a  kingdom.  It  is  interlaced  in  a  great  va- 
riety of  dependencies.  There  is  in  it  every  degree 


The  Lord's  Prayer  49 

of  kinship,  every  form  of  hierarchy,  and  wide 
ministration  of  plant  to  plant,  both  in  nourishment 
and  in  protection.  The  forest  gathers  under  its 
shadow  a  long  list  of  herbs  and  shrubs,  as  certainly 
and  parentally  as  the  hen,  her  chickens  under  her 
wings.  A  looking  forward  to  what  is  to  come  is 
yet  more  manifest  in  the  vegetable  than  in  the 
mineral  kingdom.  All  animal  life  is  to  be  pro- 
vided for,  and  an  extensive  action  and  reaction  is 
set  up  between  these  two  forms  of  creation.  They 
must  mutually  nourish  and  extend  each  other. 
Because  this  dependence  is  so  inherent,  so  inevi- 
table, we  may  cease  to  marvel  at  it,  as  if  nothing 
were  wonderful  which  is  not  put  together,  like  a 
puzzle,  in  a  mechanical  form.  The  world  grows 
together  in  its  several  parts,  and  thereby  becomes 
a  more  complete  kingdom.  These  relations  are 
both  near  and  remote.  They  are  instituted  by  im- 
mediate dependencies  and  give  rise  to  remote 
ones.  The  bee  is  attracted  to  the  flower  by  color 
and  so  fertilizes  it,  but  how  conies  the  flower  with 
its  honey,  its  money  in  hand,  to  pay  the  busy  bee? 
Yet  both  flower  and  bee  with  all  their  marvelous 
capacities  are  only  truly  and  finally  fed  upon  by 
the  intelligent  eye  of  man.  All  services  are  on 
their  way  to  this  goal,  all  friction  is  in  the  mind  of 
man. 

4 


50  The  Lord's  Prayer 

The  animal  kingdom,  crowning  these  lower 
kingdoms,  at  once  begins  to  throb  with  feeling. 
Waves  of  appetite  and  passion  and  desire  stir  it  in 
every  part.  The  uses  of  the  world,  and  the  laws 
of  these  uses,  begin  to  disclose  themselves.  The 
rulers  of  the  world  and  the  rules  of  the  world  stand 
over  against  each  other,  and  give  us  more  distinctly 
than  ever  a  united  kingdom.  It  is  often  said  that 
the  law  of  this  kingdom  is  force,  and  that  this 
force,  in  its  exercise,  brings  hopeless  strife  and 
tyranny;  that  our  kingdom  is  not  a  kingdom  of 
peace  nor  can  it  ever  be.  This  is  only  partially 
true  of  a  transition  state.  Animal  life  starts  in 
nurture  and  love,  and  will  ultimately  return  to 
them  as  its  true  ties.  Without  this  first  kinship, 
the  animal  kingdom  would  cease  to  be,  and  it 
travails  in  pain  waiting  for  a  second  birth  into  re- 
demptive love.  The  animal  kingdom  is  in  a  state 
of  anarchy,  its  lawful  king  is  not  yet  on  the  throne. 
Nor  has  the  kingly  race  yet  learned  the  law  of  its 
own  life.  All  things  are  waiting  on  reason.  The 
animal  kingdom  and  the  rational  kingdom  are 
inextricably  interwoven.  Neither  can  be  per- 
fected without  the  other.  As  the  rational  ele- 
ment advances,  the  physical  element  retires  to  its 
true  position.  We  have  force,  but  force  itself 
must  come  under  the  rule  of  reason  and  of  love. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  51 

This  immediate  anarchy  is  due  to  the  process  of 
creation.  It  is  not  to  be  alleged  against  the 
creative  plan,  any  more  than  the  confusion  of  a 
building  in  its  erection  is  the  fault  of  the  finished 
work.  The  Inquisition  did  not  disclose  the  nature 
of  Christian  faith,  nor  does  vivisection  reveal  the 
character  of  scientific  research.  The  heartless 
experimenter  is  no  more  a  type  of  manhood  than 
was  Torquemada,  the  terrific  inquisitor,  with  his 
ten  thousand  victims  wrapped  in  flames,  a  type 
of  Christian  love. 

Our  prayer  is  Thy  Kingdom  come.  We  wait 
for  the  time  when  force  shall  be  the  instrument 
of  reason,  and  not  override  it;  when  men  shall 
enlarge  sympathy,  not  quell  it.  The  questions 
which  forever  press  upon  us  are :  What  are  the  rudi- 
ments of  a  kingdom  of  heaven  in  the  world?  May 
all  forces  remain  as  forces  and  yet  be  put  to  the 
service  of  the  affections?  Can  we  build  an  engine 
whose  imprisoned  steam  shall  tug  at  every  joint 
and  yet  be  perfectly  safe?  Are  the  achievements 
of  love,  like  those  of  reason,  possible  and  har- 
monious, and  do  they  thus  contain  for  us  a  king- 
dom of  heaven?  Human  action  is  so  partial  in  its 
accomplishments,  so  conflicting  and  fragmentary 
in  its  putting  forth,  that  we  find  great  trouble 
in  believing  in  anything  approaching  perfection 


52  The  Lord's  Prayer 

in  the  actions  of  men.  In  the  study  of  plants, 
when  we  pass  over  from  systematic  botany 
to  structural  botany,  we  forget  the  beauty  of 
the  flower  in  our  desire  to  know  the  processes  by 
which  it  is  built  up.  In  biology,  we  have  a  mu- 
seum of  skeletons  as  more  instructive  than  a  col- 
lection of  animals.  Yet  it  is  the  plant  and  animal 
as  living  things  which  God  gives  us,  and  it  is  in 
their  perfected  life  that  we  best  understand  them. 
Our  method  is  as  if  we  should  analyze  words  and 
sentences  and  care  nothing  for  literature.  The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  the  fullness,  and  the  ful- 
fillment, of  all  things.  It  is  the  music  in  which  fit- 
ting sounds  are  combined ;  the  elevation  of  thought 
and  warmth  of  feeling  which  arise  when  men  are 
attuned  to  one  another  and  to  the  world. 

Thy  kingdom  come  is  the  prayer  of  faith,  the 
prayer  of  one  in  whom  the  purposes  of  life  are 
taking  shape,  and  its  possibilities  have  begun  to  be 
seen.  It  is  not  the  petition  of  one  who  is  engrossed 
in  the  details  of  living,  but  of  one  who  is  living.  It 
is  not,  "I  believe,  help  Thou  mine  unbelief";  it  is 
not  the  struggle  of  one  for  the  light,  the  soul,  mean- 
while, sinking  into  darkness,  but  the  abiding  de- 
sire of  one  who  has  caught  sight  of  the  goal  and 
is  pressing  toward  it.  This  prayer  is  first  the 
victory  of  faith  in  the  soul,  and  second  the  push- 


The  Lord's  Prayer  53 

ing  outward  of  this  inner  life  for  the  conquest  of 
the  world.  The  seed  hidden  in  the  earth  has  felt 
the  heat  of  the  sun  and  now  it  is  in  search  of  the 
sun  itself.  In  this  prayer  we  see  the  true  nature 
of  faith,  that  faith  by  which  we  enter  into  all  in- 
visible good  and  wrap  it  about  us  as  a  garment. 

Faith  is  that  temperament  of  mind  and  heart  to 
which  goodness  and  truth  readily  disclose  them- 
selves, it  is  the  dormant  life  ready  to  become  the 
actual  life. 

The  same  man  makes  a  very  different  impression 
on  different  men.  One  dislikes  him  and  distrusts 
him;  another  likes  him  and  trusts  him.  The  two 
in  their  conflicting  judgments  are  dealing  with 
spiritual  qualities.  The  one  fails  to  see  them,  the 
other  is  at  once  impressed  by  them.  The  one 
attitude  is  that  of  darkness  and  apprehension,  the 
other  of  light  and  confidence.  Faith,  when  well 
directed,  is  not  only  rational,  it  is  the  summation 
of  the  highest  reason.  It  is  knowing  with  the 
knowledge  of  a  pure  heart,  it  is  seeing  through  a 
perfect  lens.  The  man  who  prays  Thy  kingdom 
come,  has  begun  to  see  that  kingdom  in  the  world, 
to  rejoice  in  its  excellence,  and  to  be  in  haste  for  its 
completion.  The  glimmer  on  the  horizon  is  for 
him  daylight,  light  that,  in  spite  of  the  long  dark- 
ness, is  normal  to  the  world,  and  will  quickly  en- 


54  The  Lord's  Prayer 

close  it  in  its  arms.  He  sees  and  feels,  and  he  is 
alive  with  his  convictions.  The  forces  are  at  work 
all  about  him  which  are  to  fulfill  his  vision. 

Take  the  cruelty  of  the  world,  its  violence  and 
blood.  They  disturb  him,  they  distress  him,  they 
do  not  discourage  him.  His  heart  is  at  war  with 
them  and  rejects  them,  and  he  believes  that  the 
heart  of  the  world  is  equally  at  war  with  them  and 
will  equally  reject  them.  The  thought  of  God 
seeking  realization  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  pushing 
in  all  ways  into  the  light,  is  one  of  wisdom  and  love. 
O  that  that  kingdom  might  come!  The  seed  has 
germinated,  is  piercing  the  soil,  and  now  we  wait 
for  the  miracle  of  flower  and  fruit. 

The  coming  of  this  kingdom  is  not  a  single,  a 
detached  event,  it  is  the  marshaling  'together  of 
all  events,  the  accomplishment  of  all  labors,  the 
completion  of  all  hopes.  Men  who  have  grounded 
arms  and  lie  stretched  here  and  there,  at  the  word 
of  command  spring  to  their  feet,  fall  into  ranks, 
the  ranks  close  up  as  regiments,  the  regiments 
stand  fast  as  divisions,  and  the  divisions  become 
one  army.  Such  is  the  coming  together  of  the 
detached  parts  of  the  kingdom.  Herein  is  the 
invincible  force  of  faith,  its  conquering  power. 
This  kingdom  completes  the  world.  This  comple- 
tion must  be,  the  world  is  that  it  might  be,  and  has 


The  Lord's  Prayer  55 

been  from  the  beginning  in  these  throes  of  birth. 
It  is  not  denying  one  thing,  it  is  denying  and  mak- 
ing futile  all  things,  to  say  there  is  no  kingdom. 
The  soul  abhors  this  unbelief  as  utter  blindness, 
and  flings  itself  with  new  desire  on  the  prayer,  Thy 
kingdom  come. 

This  kingdom  is  a  kingdom  and  has  the  unity 
and  aidfulness  of  a  kingdom.  A  conspicuous  fea- 
ture of  the  world  has  been  its  strife.  Some  have 
laid  great  stress  on  this  struggle  for  existence,  as  if 
it  were  the  deepest  impulse  in  human  life  and  in  all 
life.  And  yet  the  cruel  pressure  of  this  law  re- 
mains with  us  only  until  we  can  climb  up  into  a 
higher,  more  beneficent,  and  more  efficient  law, 
that  of  love.  Even  war  has  wrought  on  the  side  of 
affiliation  and  men  have  been  consolidated  into 
nations,  wherein  they  have  grown  strong  by 
unity,  by  a  fellowship  which  has  sheltered  all  the 
institutions  of  peace.  One  step  alone  remains, 
aidfulness  among  nations.  The  better  law,  which 
sprang  up  in  the  shelter  of  the  household,  has 
gone  thence  as  the  affiliation  of  great  peoples 
with  one  another,  and  now  waits  to  draw  these 
peoples  themselves  into  the  household  of  nations. 

Most  human  passions  and  all  human  virtue  are 
social.  We  sin  because  of  the  temptations  others 
bring  to  us,  we  obey  more  perfectly  as  others  unite 


in  giving  us  the  incentives  and  the  rewards  of 
obedience.  The  kingdom  sustains  all  goodness  and 
makes  it  ever  more  normal.  As  holiness  comes  the 
kingdom  conies,  and  as  the  kingdom  comes  holi- 
ness comes  with  it. 

This  kingdom  has  its  own  patriotism,  the  patri- 
otism of  universal  good-will  and  joy.  There  are 
times  of  darkness.  The  night  settles  down  and  the 
eye  is  hemmed  in.  But  all  barriers  give  way  to  the 
light.  The  soul  is  true  to  itself,  its  powers  come 
at  length  to  play  freely  and  it  overtakes  the  joy  of 
the  kingdom,  and  is  overtaken  by  it.  It  has  no 
occasion  to  split  up  and  to  subdivide  its  petition, 
to  plead  for  this  or  to  plead  for  that  special  good. 
Thy  kingdom  come  includes  all  and  for  all.  The 
joy  of  a  far-spreading  and  invincible  good  takes 
possession  of  the  soul,  it  wishes  simply  to  love,  not 
to  narrow  itself  to  luxuries  and  to  the  luxurious, 
but  to  be  the  recipient  of  all  good  with  all  and 
through  all.  The  day  has  come  in  gladness,  let  it 
move  forward  in  strength. 

This  kingdom  is  a  kingdom.  It  has  its  king  in 
whose  hand  all  wisdom  and  goodness  are  gathered. 
He  rules  beneath  and  above.  The  physical  and 
the  spiritual  minister  to  each  other,  and  in  their 
interlock  make  up  and  hold  firm  the  kingdom. 
All  things  are  working  together  for  good  to  those 


The  Lord's  Prayer  57 

who  love  God.  They  were  made,  and  remade,  and 
are  being  made  again  for  this  very  end  of  uni- 
versal service. 

It  is  a  kingdom  in  which  authority  rests  on 
liberty  and  liberty  issues  in  authority.  The 
kingdom  is  not  established  until  those  who  are  sub- 
ject to  it  pray  Thy  kingdom  come.  We  share  the 
counsel  of  God  and  are  found  gladly  fulfilling  his 
purposes,  since  under  them  and  with  them  all 
events  flow  together,  float  and  bear  forward  the 
welfare  of  the  race.  We  love  God  because  he  first 
loved  us,  and  there  is  no  abatement  or  limitation 
either  in  his  or  in  our  love.  Our  vision  is  so  ex- 
tended, our  thoughts  so  widely  rational,  our  hearts 
so  alive  to  goodness,  that  we  cannot  but  pray 
Thy  kingdom  come,  the  kingdom  in  which  giving 
and  receiving,  activities  and  receptibilities  are 
inseparable,  and  all  are  merged  in  the  flow  of  the 
universal  life  forward,  as  our  wills  and  the  divine 
will  together  touch  the  highest  creation,  that  for 
which  all  things  were  made,  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven. 

THY  WILL  BE  DONE  IN  EARTH  AS  IT  IS  IN  HEAVEN 

This  petition  is  an  amplification  under  the  pre- 
vious one,  Thy  kingdom  come;  an  amplification 


58  The  Lord's  Prayer 

which  brings  into  relief  its  most  distinguishing 
feature.  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  lies  in  a  com- 
plete knowing  and  doing  of  the  will  of  God. 

We  are  not  told  how  God's  will  is  done  in 
heaven.  We  are  supposed  to  conceive,  in  our 
own  experience,  ever  more  distinctly,  how  it  is 
done — intelligently,  habitually,  gladly.  The  joy 
of  heaven  is  found  in  this  doing ;  it  is  not  the  reward 
of  it.  The  doctrine  of  rewards  and  punishments 
appeals  only  to  the  lower  phases  of  spiritual  life, 
and  even  these  bring  many  misapprehensions. 
Everlasting  punishment  means  everlasting  dis- 
cord, and  robs  itself  of  all  redemptive  character. 
Insight  into  good,  insight  into  the  conditions  of 
welfare  are  the  highest  product  of  culture.  The 
Lord's  Prayer  presupposes  a  measure  of  this 
knowledge.  We  apprehend,  at  least  partially,  the 
joy  of  heaven,  and  desire  its  transfer  to  earth. 

This  is  what  God  is  about,  teaching  us  his  will ; 
this  is  what  we  should  be  about,  learning  his  will 
deeply,  broadly,  beneficently. 

This  learning  the  will  of  God  is,  in  the  fullest 
meaning  of  the  word,  empirical,  an  experience;  it 
is  also,  in  the  fullest  meaning  of  the  word,  intuitive, 
an  insight  by  which  we  draw  near  to  God  in  vision. 
We  strive  to  do  the  will  of  God,  and  so  we  come  to 
know  what  that  will  is.  The  good  we  accomplish 


The  Lord's  Prayer  59 

makes  a  higher  good  visible  to  us.  We  become 
skilled  workmen  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
Even  the  evil  into  which  we  have  fallen  makes 
plain  to  us  that  we  have  missed  the  path.  We  are 
in  all  ways  corrected  and  instructed  in  spiritual 
things.  The  vices  and  the  virtues  of  those  about 
us  are  disclosures  to  us  of  the  conditions  of  life. 
We  make  our  way  by  means  of  them  through  the 
unreclaimed  forces  of  the  world.  Having  gained 
some  notion  of  spiritual  good,  we  are  thus  prepared 
to  pray  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 
This  is  the  first  great  fact  of  our  lives,  that  we 
are  being  taught;  trained  in  knowledge,  until  the 
will  of  God,  the  plan  of  God,  is  understood  by  us. 
We  thus  catch  glimpses  of  the  divine  vision,  and 
are  anxious  to  reproduce  it  fully  in  a  world  as 
yet  unshaped  by  it.  Truth,  instead  of  lying  here 
and  there,  now  and  then,  like  flakes  of  light  on  the 
landscape,  we  come  to  see  should  cover  the  entire 
field  of  action,  penetrating  it  everywhere  with  its 
warmth  and  vitality.  This  is  to  be  done  in  our 
separate,  individual  experience;  this  is  to  be  done 
in  our  common,  collective  experience,  an  experi- 
ence not  yet  purified  in  thought,  corrected  in 
practice,  and  brought  under  the  discipline  of  love. 
Distinction  of  races,  nations,  classes;  distinctions 
between  those  of  kindred  occupations  and  those 


6o  The  Lord's  Prayer 

who  are  not;  distinctions  of  those  akin  to  us  and 
those  alien  to  us;  distinctions  in  which  reason  and 
unreason,  the  will  of  God  and  the  passions  of  men 
are  commingled  and  confounded — it  is  to  these 
distinctions  that  we  are  to  bring  the  will  of  God 
and  to  build  up  relations  under  it  like  unto  those  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

A  fundamental  conviction  is  that  the  will  of  God, 
the  plan  of  God  covers  all  things;  that  in  every 
relation  of  life  there  is  a  course  of  conduct  that  in 
reference  to  all  other  courses  is  good,  right,  pleas- 
ure-giving, and  that  this  course  expresses  the  will 
of  God ;  that  nothing  is  haphazard  in  society  any 
more  than  in  the  physical  world :  and  that  this  ac- 
tion, which  is  ordained  for  the  welfare  of  men,  ex- 
presses the  divine  mind.  We  wish  it  to  have  sway 
in  the  same  complete  form  in  the  world  as  we 
suppose  it  to  have  in  heaven.  Thy  will  be  done 
in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

We  know  a  great  deal  about  the  will  of  God,  but 
there  is  more,  much  more,  that  needs  to  be  known. 
All  the  lasting  peace  and  joy  of  our  lives  turn  on 
what  we  know  of  God's  will,  and  all  the  perplexity, 
fear,  and  discouragement,  on  what  we  fail  to  know. 
We  are  like  one  who  lives  by  the  shore  of  the  ocean. 
He  is  constantly  on  it,  he  gets  his  food  from  it,  he 
forecasts  its  storms,  he  rejoices  in  its  bright  days. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  61 

Yet  how  much  remains  unknown  to  him.  He 
rows  and  sails  on  a  great  sea  whose  depths  and 
wide  stretches  lie  quite  beyond  him,  a  sea  which 
furnishes  no  such  food  for  mind  and  heart  as  it  is 
ready  to  furnish,  a  sea  that  may,  after  all,  swallow 
him  up,  because  of  his  hopeless  ignorance  and  un- 
wise courage. 

In  the  acquisition  of  this  needed  knowledge, 
there  are  many  mistakes  to  be  encountered,  much 
suffering,  constant  delay,  frequent  retreat.  We 
have  not  yet  learned  what  was  declared  to  us  long 
ago,  that  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations 
of  men  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth.  We, 
as  a  nation,  have  never  reached  in  practice  those 
primary  principles  of  equality  which,  at  one  time, 
taught  by  our  own  trials,  we  seemed  to  espouse. 
We  limit  them,  fall  below  them,  rob  them  of  their 
immediate  bearing.  We  vibrate  about  the  polar 
point  like  a  needle  suffering  magnetic  disturbance. 

Take  such  a  thing  as  war.  At  times  we  catch 
sight  of  its  foolish,  diabolical  character;  unfitted 
alike  to  wise  men  and  to  good  men.  More  fre- 
quently we  think  of  it  as  a  part  of  the  framework 
of  things,  and  watch  its  development  with  tranquil 
interest.  We  see  the  circumstances  accumulating 
which  tend  to  strife,  the  provocations  which  usher 
in  war  gaining  ground ;  and  we  begin  to  discuss  its 


62  The  Lord's  Prayer 

possibility  and  its  probable  results.  The  building 
may  take  fire,  and,  if  it  does,  we  shall  be  there  to 
see  it  burn.  We  forget  the  waste  of  human  labor, 
the  good  ready  to  be  reached  driven  back  into 
chaos.  We  speak  of  civilized  warfare.  We  might 
as  well  talk  of  lovable  hatred. 

The  essential  condition  of  doing  the  divine  will 
as  it  is  done  in  heaven  is  more  knowledge,  not  of 
things  but  of  persons,  a  knowledge  of  the  beauty 
and  joy  and  eternal  peace  of  the  ties  which  unite 
us  to  our  fellow-men  and  to  the  throne  of  God. 
Not  a  theoretical  knowledge  which  may  lie,  dry 
seed,  in  the  resinous  hand  of  a  mummy  three 
thousand  years  without  germinating,  but  a  practi- 
cal knowledge,  seed  in  the  soil,  drinking  in  mois- 
ture, bursting  its  integuments,  and,  under  the 
quickening  heat  of  the  sun,  finding  all  its  mysteri- 
ous powers. 

The  idea  which  keeps  company  with  this  knowl- 
edge of  the  will  of  God  is  liberty,  the  power  and 
obligation  to  do  it.  God  is  waiting,  the  world  is 
waiting,  the  happiness  of  men  is  waiting  on  liberty, 
waiting  until  we  shall  learn  to  think  the  things  and 
to  do  the  things  that  are  thought  and  done  in 
heaven.  Let  us  give  a  moment's  consideration  to 
this  liberty,  involved  in  the  petition,  Thy  will  be 
DONE  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven;  the  liberty  which 


The  Lord's  Prayer  63 

explains  the  plan  of  God,  covers  all  delays,  and 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  spiritual  welfare.  Men 
have  ridiculed  this  liberty,  and  have  put  it  down  by 
what  they  have  regarded  as  invincible  argument; 
and  then  they  have  proceeded  to  make  use  of  this 
same  liberty  without  guidance  against  their  own 
lives.  If  a  man  wishes  to  show  himself  an  imbecile 
and  to  prove  himself  an  idiot,  this  argument  will 
carry  him  a  long  way  in  his  purpose. 

Liberty,  in  the  Christian  scheme,  is  our  constant 
point  of  departure  and  of  return.  "  Strive  to  enter 
in  at  the  strait  gate. "  ' '  Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven."  "Every  one  that  asketh  receiveth, 
and  he  that  seeketh  findeth,  and  to  him  that 
knocketh  it  shall  be  opened. "  These  words  lie  in 
the  line  of  our  daily  experience.  They  are  full  of 
encouragement;  they  break  down  all  obstructions 
and  call  out  latent  powers.  Men,  missing  liberty, 
build  up  schemes  of  election,  as  if  there  were  or 
could  be  any  other  election  than  the  soul's  election 
of  God  and  God's  election  of  the  soul,  each  in 
liberty,  two  drops  melting  into  one  sphere.  The 
moment  we  force  a  few  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven,  we  begin  to  force  many  out  of  it.  The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  ceases  to  be  within  us,  an  ever- 
lasting possibility  of  life. 

Human  life  is  at  one  with  the  gospel  on  this 


64  The  Lord's  Prayer 

question  of  liberty.  We  hold  all  men  everywhere 
and  at  all  times,  the  young  and  the  old,  the  high- 
minded  and  the  debased,  to  the  test  of  liberty;  to 
censure  and  praise,  reward  and  punishment,  ac- 
cording to  their  use  of  liberty.  We  turn  apparent 
prosperity  into  sudden  overthrow  by  the  exposure 
of  wrong  action.  Men  have  never  done  otherwise, 
and  never  will  do  otherwise. 

Liberty  is  not  blind  power,  it  is  the  power  to 
see,  to  understand,  and  to  act.  Thinking  itself, 
which  is  the  adjustment  of  the  mind  to  the  facts, 
must  be  free,  and  it  must  carry  freedom  with  it. 
Will  is  but  the  fructifying  of  this  power  of  thought 
in  action.  If  we  are  swimming  to  any  purpose  we 
are  not  under  the  water,  our  heads  are  above  the 
water  and  our  eyes  on  the  shore.  To  think  with 
observation  and  forecast  is  to  alter  the  conditions 
of  action;  is  for  the  pilot  to  cast  his  eyes  on  the 
chart,  before  he  brings  the  ship  about.  "  As  a  man 
thinketh  so  is  he."  What  thinkest  thou  of  the 
world,  of  Christ,  of  human  destiny?  These  are 
the  questions  which  put  our  powers  in  motion  and 
make  us  masters  of  life.  This  is  the  freedom  of 
the  sons  of  God,  the  freedom  that  goes  with  broad 
daylight.  This  is  the  freedom  to  which  we  appeal 
in  the  petition,  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is 
in  heaven. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  65 

We  may  not  at  all  times  seem  to  be  in  posses- 
sion of  this  liberty.  We  may  be  surrounded  by 
many  vexations,  a  cloud  of  mosquitoes  which  we 
cannot  drive  off.  Men  envelop  themselves  in  mul- 
titudinous cares  and  claims  and  conventional 
sentiments,  and  so  sink  below  liberty.  They 
become  slaves  of  excessive  desires,  yet  there  is  air 
above  them.  Let  them  rise  into  an  atmosphere 
clear  enough  to  see  in,  cool  enough  to  think  in, 
and  there  once  more  they  will  regain  their  liberty. 

If  a  man  is  to  have  an  opinion,  to  express  an  opin- 
ion, to  enforce  an  opinion,  that  opinion  must  be  the 
product  of  his  own  thought;  twisted  together  out 
of  the  filaments  of  his  own  conviction.  We  com- 
mit intellectual  suicide  when  we  say  that  we  are 
not  able  to  form  an  opinion.  Our  words  fall  at 
once  to  the  ground.  We  become  slaves  who  can 
own  nothing,  give  nothing,  testify  to  nothing.  A 
man  must  stand  by  his  freedom  whether  he  com- 
prehends it  or  not,  for  only  thus  can  he  enter  into 
any  kingdom,  earthly  or  heavenly.  It  is  to  bring 
these  two  kingdoms  into  harmony,  as  resting  on  the 
same  convictions,  that  we  pray  Thy  will  be  done. 
We  understand  the  world  by  our  own  will.  This 
is  the  only  government  the  world  knows.  We 
are  constantly  pushing  responsibility  to  its  limits. 
We  are  eager  to  hold  men  responsible  to  us.  We 


66  The  Lord's  Prayer 

live  in  this  atmosphere  of  praise  and  censure: 
sharp,  biting  censure;  honeyed,  voluminous  praise. 
There  is  nothing  we  are  surer  of  than  our  fault- 
finding. There  is  no  reaction  of  the  human  mind 
more  immediate  and  certain  than  its  reaction 
against  injury.  Our  daily  thoughts,  feelings,  ac- 
tions revolve  on  this  pivot  of  conduct. 

The  theory  which  takes  all  substance  out  of 
liberty  has  been  held  by  good  men,  and  yet  they 
have  proceeded  at  once  to  neglect  it  in  action.  If 
men  are  passive  under  surrounding  circumstances, 
waiting  to  be  moved  by  them,  then  they  are  things. 
It  is  indeed  vain  to  strive  to  bring  such  a  being 
under  moral  forces,  to  load  him  down  with  respon- 
sibilities, he  still  remains,  in  heaven  or  on  earth, 
a  beast  of  burden.  If  we  first  put  the  drinking- 
cup  into  Benjamin's  sack,  we  shall  indeed  know 
where  to  find  it.  But  what  right  have  we,  in  view 
of  the  history  of  the  world,  its  achievements  and 
its  failures,  to  cast  human  lives  as  so  much  drift- 
wood into  the  stream  of  events? 

Liberty  in  action  comes  through  liberty  of 
thought.  "Ye  shall  know  the  truth  and  the  truth 
shall  make  you  free. ' '  What  is  better  worth  know- 
ing than  the  truth;  but  why  know  it,  if  we  are  un- 
able to  obey  it?  The  pilot's  hand  is  on  the  helm. 
He  sees  the  conditions  before  him.  Let  the  winds 


The  Lord's  Prayer  67 

blow,  the  waves  dash,  the  currents  tug,  he  is  there 
to  resist  them  and  to  bring  his  ship  to  port.  We 
are  slow  to  feel  that  there  is  a  spiritual  order  and 
spiritual  presence  in  the  world,  which  frames  law, 
which  swaddles  us  in  it  like  a  garment,  and  nurses 
us  by  it  into  manhood.  This  world  must  make 
itself  seen  and  felt  and  understood  as  permeated 
with  the  will  of  God;  and  God  is  struggling  with 
this  revelation  of  love  which  is  to  fill  full  our 
spiritual  cup. 

The  harmony  of  the  world  with  itself  turns  on 
these  spiritual  elements.  This  is  the  spiritual 
matrix  in  which  a  kingdom  of  heaven  is  to  be 
shaped.  Without  it  all  is  immediate  strife  and 
ultimate  ruin.  The  physical  laws  on  which  we 
plant  ourselves  are  naked  granite;  much  can  be 
built  on  them,  nothing  can  be  grown  on  them. 
When  the  world  takes  on  a  spiritual  character  its 
elements  come  together  in  achievement,  in  holi- 
ness, in  blessedness.  The  garment  of  divine  love 
begins  to  be  cast  over  the  framework  of  things. 
Personality  emerges,  and  we  are  ready  to  pray 
Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  Do 
not  let  us  stultify  ourselves  or  our  fellow-men  by 
denying  our  power  to  know  and  to  do  the  divine 
will,  a  will  spread  out  all  over  the  world  that  we 
may  know  it  and  may  do  it. 


68  The  Lord's  Prayer 

The  world  is  the  breeding  place  of  spiritual 
powers.  Its  chief  feature  is  the  discipline  iby 
which  we  come  to  see  what  is  good,  to  learn  what 
is  true,  and  to  pursue  them.  God  places  us  in 
a  world  where  all  things  are  to  be  wrought  out, 
and  to  be  wrought  into  perfect  form.  We  may,  if 
we  will,  profane  the  name  of  God,  set  lightly  by  his 
law,  and  despise  his  power.  That  which  we  shall 
be  judged  by,  stand  or  fall  by,  is  the  conformity  of 
our  thoughts  and  actions  to  the  facts  of  the  world. 
This  training  is  a  far-reaching  training.  It  puts 
us  to  constant  trial.  The  knowing  and  the 
doing  are  forever  flung  back  upon  us.  We  may 
repeat  our  mistakes,  or  we  may  correct  them. 
No  justification  of  disobedience,  no  dogmatism 
in  error,  no  submission  of  our  will  to  the  will  of 
others,  will  rid  us  of  our  ever-returning  responsi- 
bility to  know  and  to  do  the  will  of  God  as  it  is 
known  and  done  in  heaven. 

It  seems  a  strange  petition,  Thy  will  be  done,  as 
if  the  will  of  God  were  not  sure  to  be  done.  We 
appear  to  ask  for  a  stay  of  procedure,  that  events 
should  be  held  in  check,  while  we  discuss  this 
question  of  obedience.  This  is  what  we  do  ask, 
and  it  is  what  we  truly  need.  The  law  of  the 
world  marches  with  the  day,  with  the  seasons,  with 
the  centuries.  We  are  petitioning  that  God  should 


The  Lord's  Prayer  69 

quicken  us  with  his  thoughts,  ply  us  with  his 
persuasions,  until  we  are  ready  to  get  to  our  feet 
and  to  take  our  place  with  these  forms  of  life  as 
they  move  forward  out  of  chaos  into  the  beauty 
and  order  of  creation.  Our  danger  lies  just  here, 
that  when  the  words  of  wisdom  come  to  us,  we 
shall  not  heed  them;  nor  understand  the  forces 
which,  with  us  or  without  us,  push  events  forward 
to  their  fulfillment.  Let  not  the  consummation 
complete  itself  and  we  find  no  place  in  it.  Yes, 
we  have  need  to  pray  Make  the  years  to  tarry 
that  we  too  may  learn  in  them  to  do  Thy  will. 

This  discipline  of  the  world  is  concessive  as  well  as 
searching.  While  the  circumstances  of  life  are  by 
no  means  in  each  person  equally  favorable  to 
obedience,  each  set  of  circumstances  makes  up  a 
discipline  in  which  the  spirit  subject  to  them  may 
be  thoroughly  trained.  Nor  are  the  differences 
what  we  think  them  to  be.  Favorable  conditions 
constantly  miscarry  and  unfavorable  ones  are  often 
successful.  The  victory  is  not  in  his  surroundings, 
nor  yet  wholly  in  the  man,  but  in  a  living  inter- 
play of  the  two.  All  soils  and  all  climates  declare 
themselves  in  suitable  flower  and  fruit.  The 
mind  adjusts  itself  to  duties,  and  duties  instruct 
the  mind.  The  desire  to  know  and  the  effort  to 
know,  these  prosper  wherever  they  are.  It  is  a 


70  The  Lord's  Prayer 

faithful  dealing  with  the  rudiments  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  as  they  lie  about  us,  and  a  diligent 
extension  of  them,  which  build  us  up  in  knowledge 
and  obedience,  and  render  the  prayer  earnest  and 
intelligent,  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in 
heaven.  It  is  this  discipline  which  makes  us  ready 
for  heaven  as  we  approach  heaven. 

This  discipline  is  not  only  comprehensive  and 
concessive,  it  is  loving.  It  is  difficult  for  us  to  see 
the  kindness  of  the  world.  Our  indolence,  our 
thwarted  desires  make  the  path  of  obedience  hard 
and  distasteful.  The  constancy  with  which  we 
are  thrown  back  on  obedience  only  enforces  the 
lesson  that  God's  will  is  to  be  done  completely, 
done  in  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven.  The  beauty 
of  obedience  lies  in  its  perfection.  The  confusion 
and  the  suffering  of  the  world  are  due  to  partial 
obedience.  Our  discipline,  because  it  is  loving, 
goes  to  the  heart  of  the  difficulty.  The  obedience 
of  heaven  is  held  up  to  us  complete,  cheerful,  ef- 
fectual. This  obedience  becomes  brighter  and 
brighter,  more  and  more  possible,  as  we  dwell  upon 
it.  It  passes  into  the  deep-seated  desire  of  our 
text,  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

Our  thoughts,  feelings,  actions  fall  into  harmony ; 
we  are  instructed  in  the  true  sources  of  our  own 
pleasure;  our  satisfaction  is  deepened  in  the 


The  Lord's  Prayer  71 

pleasures  of  others,  and  all  subsidiary  good  finds 
its  way  into  one  stream  that  flows  through  our 
lives.  We  come  to  possess  both  earth  and  heaven 
when  we  see  that  one  and  the  same  law,  one  and 
the  same  will,  governs  them  both;  that  God's  will 
is  the  creative  love  of  God  which  is  seeking  to  de- 
clare itself  in  that  evolution  in  which  the  highest 
comes  out  of  the  lowest,  and  all  things  work  to- 
gether toward  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  If  we 
understand  the  world  in  which  we  are,  the  prayer 
becomes  inevitable,  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it 
is  in  heaven. 

GIVE  US  THIS  DAY  OUR  DAILY  BREAD 

This  petition,  regarded  in  its  statement  simply, 
is  a  plain,  narrow  supplication.  Yet,  as  the 
mind  rests  upon  it,  it  unfolds  its  reasons,  and  we 
begin  to  feel  its  inspiration ;  it  enlarges  itself  in  all 
directions  until  it  embraces  the  whole  field,  from 
horizon  to  horizon,  of  things  to  be  given  and  re- 
ceived at  the  divine  hand.  We  ask  for  a  simple, 
physical  thing  and  immediately  discover  that  we 
have  asked  for  all  related  physical  gifts.  We 
then  see  that  intellectual  opportunities  and  spiri- 
tual blessings  stand  on  the  same  footing  and  have 
their  part  in  the  petition.  We  are,  in  reference  to 
them  all,  on  the  same  terms  of  reception,  and  we 


72  The  Lord's  Prayer 

are  before  the  great  giver  of  all  good,  seeking  at 
his  hand  the  gifts  of  the  day.  As  fast  as  grows  our 
sense  of  need,  so  fast  grows  the  petition  we  have 
put  up,  until  we  find  ourselves  up  and  far  away  on 
the  path  of  life.  We  start  where  all  men  start, 
in  physical  necessities,  but  we  end  where  all  should 
end,  in  the  universal  presence  of  God,  in  a  world 
shaped  to  cover  every  human  want.  A  plain 
narrow  door  gives  us  access  into  the  munificence 
of  heaven. 

Bread  stands  for  all  physical  nourishment  at 
the  table  which  the  world  spreads  for  us.  This  day 
is  simply  the  first  in  that  regiment  of  days,  with 
which,  keeping  step,  we  enter  into  the  years  of 
God.  There  is  no  distinction  made  between  the 
present  and  the  future ;  the  day's  provision  stands 
for  the  ever-renewed,  the  ever-renewing  gifts  of 
God,  by  which  we  rest  with  him  forever  on  the 
same  cordial  terms  of  intercourse.  Our  favors 
are  daily  favors  and  unite  us  to  God  in  an  ever- 
renewed  tie  of  love.  We  take  an  attitude  in  this 
petition  which  grows  more  and  more  fitting, 
more  and  more  comforting,  at  each  step  of  pro- 
gress. We  are  taken  into  the  presence  of  God  and 
walk  with  him  through  the  years  so  unknown  to 
us,  so  dependent  on  his  kindly  favor.  There  is 
no  slip,  no  failure,  no  loss  of  way  in  this  journey. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  73 

The  needs  of  each  day  open  the  divine  hand;  as 
the  want  arises,  arises  also  the  gratification.  The 
actual  good  grows  in  endless  sequence  out  of  the 
possible  evil  and  good  which  surround  us.  We 
have  no  occasion  for  anxiety  or  fear,  for  God  has 
taken  us  in  charge,  and  with  him  rest  the  responsi- 
bility and  the  power.  We  have  only  to  keep  our- 
selves in  the  receptive  attitude.  This  nearness  of 
the  world  to  God  is  in  the  prayer,  and  begets  the 
prayer,  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  O  for 
the  ability  to  pray  as  God  would  have  us  pray, 
that  we  may  know  as  he  would  have  us  know  how 
near  we  are  to  him. 

In  the  first  place,  with  this  petition  in  our  hearts 
as  well  as  on  our  lips,  we  are  filled  with  content- 
ment. The  world,  as  men  find  it,  is  an  easy  place 
to  be  stupid  in,  a  hard  place  to  be  active  and 
contented  in.  We  may  agree  with  ourselves  to 
let  things  take  care  of  themselves.  We  may  fall 
into  confusion  under  the  number  of  things  to  be 
lost  and  to  be  gained,  and  may  decline  the  struggle 
of  living.  This  comes  very  near  the  prevailing 
temper  among  men.  They  refuse  to  inquire  what 
is  best,  and  when  it  is  forced  upon  them  they 
refuse  the  toil  and  self-denial  necessary  to  gain  it. 
The  labor  is  too  immediate,  the  chances  of  failure 
too  great;  they  have  neither  the  strength  nor  the 


74  The  Lord's  Prayer 

courage  for  so  hard  a  day's  work.  They  are  con- 
tent to  rest  quietly  as  they  are,  rather  than  to  put 
forth  the  effort  to  become  what  they  are  not,  and 
what  they  can  as  yet  hardly  conceive  to  be  the 
better  thing.  The  world  thus  becomes  a  place  of 
desultory  and  transient  gratifications,  of  accumu- 
lating disappointments,  of  more  and  more  com- 
plete estrangement  from  God  and  from  his 
purposes  of  grace  toward  them.  They  hardly  see, 
and  they  -only  see  to  misunderstand  what  they  see. 
So  the  summation  of  desire,  the  final  result  of  effort, 
is  a  sense  of  disappointment.  They  are  led  even  to 
think  that  this  is  the  final  lesson  of  wisdom,  not  to 
desire  much  and  not  to  expect  much;  that  the 
unrecompensed  strain  of  effort  and  the  ease  of 
indolence  alike  lead  to  the  same  result,  content- 
ment with  a  little,  contentment  that  grows  out  of 
a  barren  soil. 

The  world  is  something  quite  other  than  this. 
It  calls  for  wise  and  diligent  effort  and  makes  pro- 
vision for  its  reward.  A  few  see  and  feel  this 
demand  and  put  forth  the  labor  called  for,  but  fre- 
quently in  a  direction  in  which  it  is  only  partially 
successful.  They  gain  something  but  do  not  gain 
the  full  reward — the  reward  accompanied  with  a 
restful  sense  of  its  adequacy.  At  the  very  last, 
when  the  fullness  of  the  return  should  be  compre- 


The  Lord's  Prayer  75 

hended,  they  are  overtaken  by  a  feeling  of  the 
unsatisfactory  character  of  the  things  they  have 
attained;  that  wealth,  power,  honor  sink  into 
the  oblivion  that  swallows  up  human  labor, 
and  leave  the  soul  desolate.  "Wherefore,"  says 
the  prophet,  "do  ye  expend  your  money  for  that 
which  is  not  bread,  and  your  labor  for  that 
which  satisfieth  not?  "  The  author  of  Ecclesiastes 
finds  his  way  out  of  this  dilemma  obscurely. 
"What  profit  hath  a  man  of  all  his  labor?  All 
things  are  full  of  labor;  man  cannot  utter  it." 
To  rejoice  in  labor,  this  is  the  gift  of  God. 

There  is  hardly  another  complex  feeling  in 
which  men  so  agree,  slowly  floating  into  it  from 
the  experience  of  life,  as  in  this  dissatisfaction  with 
the  results  of  labor;  especially  when  contrasted 
with  the  enthusiasm  with  which  each  generation 
takes  up  its  tasks.  In  the  morning  they  are  ready 
for  the  toil  of  the  day,  but  when  the  night  comes 
the  return  is  found  slight  and  disappointing. 

The  civilization  which  men  attain  is  worth  very 
much,  yet  it  miscarries  in  essential  things.  The 
poverty  and  debasement  which  pursue  them  put 
a  stigma  on  human  ambitions  not  easily  forgotten. 
Our  labor  in  making  and  marketing  our  products, 
our  unceasing  provision  for  ease  and  elegance, 
still  leave  us  confronted  with  destitution,  vice, 


76  The  Lord's  Prayer 

disease,  and  death.  Is  there  sufficient  reason  for 
contentment,  confronted  as  we  are  with  these 
losses?  The  followers  of  Christ  have  met  this 
apparent  failure  with  inadequate  devices.  They 
have  assumed,  at  times,  an  ascetic  temper;  have 
thrust  aside  enjoyment,  have  devoted  themselves 
to  suffering,  and  have  thought  and  spoken  of  this 
beautiful  and  enjoyable  world  as  an  Aceldama. 
They  have  thus  sinned  against  themselves,  against 
their  fellow-men,  against  the  wisdom  and  goodness 
of  God.  They  have  abandoned  the  problem  of 
life,  and  have  in  advance  pronounced  life  a  failure. 
Or,  escaping  this  error,  that  the  pleasures  of  the 
world  are  simply  a  temptation,  Christians  have 
often  come  to  share,  in  a  half-hearted  way,  the 
feeling  of  laborious,  ambitious  men,  and  to  expect 
and  to  accept  a  certain  disappointment  in  present 
enjoyments,  cherishing  the  hope  that  a  better  fu- 
ture would  make  all  right.  The  world  may  thus 
become  less  satisfactory  to  them  than  to  others, 
pursuing  a  blessing  but  half  revealed,  and  dis- 
paraging the  pleasures  close  at  hand.  It  is  hard 
for  most  persons  to  hold  fast  to  the  good-will  of 
God,  to  believe  in  its  possible  extension  to  all,  and 
to  have  a  sense  of  its  immediate  sufficiency  when 
fully  possessed.  All  men  strive  to  draw  good-will 
into  their  own  homes,  into  their  own  centers  of  life, 


The  Lord's  Prayer  77 

while  they  still  entertain  the  notion  that  a  little 
way  out  in  the  world  there  may  be  present,  first, 
a  spirit  of  indifference,  and  then,  a  little  farther 
out,  a  vigorous  antagonism.  Though  they  are 
ever  striving  to  lay  hold  of  affection  when  it  comes 
near  to  them,  they  fail  to  feel  that  love  is  the  joy 
of  the  world,  and  that  a  spiritual  sterility  follows 
close  on  its  absence. 

The  petition  before  us  implies  this  trans- 
formation, this  conversion  of  the  world  into  the 
home  of  the  spirit.  It  asks  that  the  blessings  of 
the  world  may  be  given  unto  us  this  very  day. 
In  accepting  a  blessing  at  the  hand  of  God,  it 
accepts  it  for  all,  and  accepts  it  as  a  gift  about  to 
return  with  each  returning  day.  Herein  is  the 
contentment  of  love,  love  that  is  satisfied  in  itself, 
that  asks  and  only  asks  that  it  may  be  able  to 
hold  fast  where  it  is,  and  to  abide  in  its  own  pleas- 
ure. While  the  largest  activity  is  called  for  to 
reach,  under  the  divine  providence,  the  gifts,  actual 
and  possible,  in  the  world,  there  is  no  sense  of  their 
inadequacy  or  of  their  transient  character.  The 
home  fire  does  not  go  out  in  ashes.  Be  the 
blessing  little  or  large,  it  goes  to  the  enlargement 
of  human  happiness.  So  we  build  our  lives,  so 
we  hold  them  and  there  is  no  bitterness  there- 
with. There  is  nothing  lost.  There  is  no  poor 


78  The  Lord's  Prayer 

man  robbed,  no  vicious  man  tempted,  no  obscure 
man  forgotten,  all  are  gathered  up  and  compacted 
together  in  the  kingdom  of  the  world,  all  may 
be  gathered  up  and  compacted  together  in  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  "To  live  is  Christ  and  to 
die  is  gain."  There  is  no  obstacle  in  the  path 
of  grace,  none  but  the  sluggish  apprehensions  of 
men,  and  this  obstacle  is  giving  way  wherever 
assailed.  We  are  contented  because  the  true  goal 
of  life  is  being  approached  every  day,  with  the 
day's  duties,  the  day's  joys,  the  day's  hopes. 

But  this  contentment  is  continuous,  progressive. 
What  is  good  to-day  is  still  better  to-morrow. 
It  is  seen  more  clearly,  desired  more  earnestly, 
and  the  way  to  it  is  less  obstructed.  Busy  with 
nothing  but  the  day's  gifts  and  the  day's  work, 
we  make  no  serious  mistakes  and  find  our  labor 
ripening  in  our  hands.  The  prayer,  the  effort,  and 
the  reward  constantly  renew  themselves,  and  with 
each  day  we  are  farther  on  and  higher  up  in  the 
path  of  attainment.  Strangely  enough  our  Chris- 
tian faith  develops  not  infrequently  a  tendency  to 
break  up  this  continuity  of  temper  and  of  action. 
We  have  supposed  it  possible  to  have  one  law  of 
business  and  another  law  of  religion;  one  method 
of  making  wealth,  another  method  of  expending 
it;  one  manner  of  encountering  the  strife  and 


The  Lord's  Prayer  79 

enterprise  of  the  world,  and  another  manner  of 
turning  our  anxieties,  in  the  end,  into  a  helpful 
and  peaceful  life.  As  an  active  people  we  have 
shown  ourselves  adepts  in  this  transformation. 
Saul  has  not  only  been  among  the  prophets,  but 
has  set  the  prophetic  fashion.  We  have  crowded 
our  neighbors  bitterly  in  winning  prosperity,  but 
prosperity  once  won,  we  have  turned  a  sharp  corner 
and  have  taken  counsel  with  the  world  as  to  what 
work  most  needs  to  be  done  in  it,  can  be  most 
rapidly  and  certainly  pushed  forward  by  money, 
the  money  laid  at  the  door  of  the  temple.  We 
forget  the  indignant  rebuke  of  the  apostle,  "Thy 
money  perish  with  thee,  because  thou  hast  thought 
that  the  gift  of  God  could  be  purchased  with 
money. "  It  has  not  been  our  prayer,  Give  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread,  but  rather,  Let  me  alone  that  I 
may  make  what  I  can  in  what  way  I  can,  and  later 
I  will  settle  the  claims  of  heaven  upon  me.  But 
it  is  not  money  but  love  that  builds  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,  and  if  we  have  not  charity,  if  we  have 
not  love,  we  become  as  sounding  brass  and  a 
tinkling  cymbal.  There  is  no  distinction  of  times 
and  places  tenable.  The  petition  is  always  and 
everywhere,  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread;  and 
if  we  have  not  this  temper  in  hand  a  cheque  drawn 
on  the  future  is  worthless.  We  must  walk  with 


8o  The  Lord's  Prayer 

God  to-day  and  every  day,  if  the  higher,  holier 
spirit  is  to  become  native  to  us.  Our  days  must 
keep  company  with  one  another  if  they  are  to 
strengthen  one  another,  and  the  divine  work, 
the  work  of  good  will,  is  to  prosper  in  our  hands. 
This  is  obedience,  this,  the  spiritual  temper, 
and  nothing  else  is.  The  renewing  work  of  love  is 
as  constant,  as  continuous  as  the  work  of  creation 
and  for  much  the  same  reason,  part  uniting  it- 
self to  part,  love  to  love,  until  the  divine  thought  is 
fulfilled.  We  cannot  with  one  set  of  workmen, 
with  hard  labor  and  loud  oath,  draw  the  material 
together,  then  with  another  set  build  the  temple, 
and,  last  of  all,  with  a  trusting  temper  worship 
quietly  in  it.  The  same  spirit  that  is  to  occupy  and 
to  sanctify  the  structure  must  build  it ;  from  found- 
ation to  topmost  stone  a  loving  hand  and  a  cloud- 
less vision  must  preside  over  all.  Nothing  puts 
upon  life  or  gives  to  life  cohesion,  continuity, 
fruition.  It  grows  up  one  and  the  same  by  virtue 
of  a  vitality  that  is  one  and  the  same  from  in- 
ception to  conclusion. 

Again  this  petition,  while  it  starts  us  in  the  way 
and  leads  us  on  in  it  by  continuous,  coherent 
changes,  is  always  looking  forward  to  a  glorious 
completion.  We  are  not  confused  nor  cut  short 
in  the  journey.  There  is  one  road  before  us,  ever 


The  Lord's  Prayer  81 

stretching  heavenward.  We  see  the  point  of 
union  where  physical  and  intellectual  and  spiritual 
good  unite,  and  whence  stream  out  the  light  and 
the  revelation  which  we  are  coming  to  understand. 
We  meet  with  so  many  disappointments.  We 
fail  in  so  many  ways,  we  so  readily  mingle  the  good 
with  the  evil,  that  it  is  hard  for  us  to  believe  that 
there  is  a  plain  heavenly  path,  which  we  may 
pursue  with  a  simple,  steadfast  purpose.  Yet  so 
it  would  seem  to  be.  Here  is  a  petition  we  can 
offer,  a  way  we  can  pursue,  and  find  ourselves 
never  far  from  divine  aid  nor  waiting  long  for  di- 
vine guidance.  The  world  is  in  its  youth.  It 
has  many  things  to  learn,  many  to  correct.  Its 
powers  are  dormant,  its  passions  awake.  Yet 
in  spite  of  darkness  and  confusion  we  see  un- 
mistakable signs  of  progress.  Scattered  through 
the  history  of  the  world,  and  more  abundant  in 
our  day  than  in  any  previous  one,  there  are  men 
searching  for  the  truth  and  giving  it  ready  obedi- 
ence. All  forms  of  activity  find  their  votaries — 
commerce,  art,  philanthropy — and  every  year  the 
bonds  of  helpfulness  and  love  are  drawn  closer. 
Never  before  were  there  so  many  men  in  the 
world  ready  to  enjoy  it  and  to  make  it  enjoy- 
able for  others.  If  the  day  has  not  come,  its 
light  is  on  the  mountains  and  begins  to  descend 


82  The  Lord's  Prayer 

into  the  valleys.  We  are  able  to  offer  and  do  offer 
the  prayer,  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  We 
are  making  no  distinction  between  God's  activ- 
ity and  our  own  activity.  We  do  not  stand  over 
against  him  nor  does  he  stand  over  against  us. 
We  are  absorbed  in  the  one  work  of  carrying  the 
world  forward  in  obedience  and  love,  his  and 
our  labor.  The  getting  and  the  giving  go  together, 
and  are  alike  divine.  We  are  united  in  both  with 
our  fellow-men.  We  do  not  pray,  give  me  a 
million  to-day  and  two  millions  to-morrow,  but, 
give  us  our  daily  bread.  We  ask  nothing  for 
ourselves  which  is  not  pertinent  for  all  and  bene- 
ficial for  all.  Every  gift  is  received  in  the  way 
of  fellowship  and  carried  forward  in  the  line  of 
fellowship.  We  have  not  the  presumption  to 
suppose  that  we  can  get  selfishly  and  give  liber- 
ally, that  we  can  live  in  the  valley  and  have  the 
visions  of  the  summit.  Our  life  is  concurrent, 
concurrent  with  God,  concurrent  with  the  king- 
dom, concurrent  with  our  fellow-men.  The  con- 
ditions and  promises  of  the  highest  welfare  we 
find  applicable  to  our  daily  lif e,  and  ready  to  be 
ripened  into  the  full  fruition  of  blessings. 

Events  also,  the  ongoing  of  the  world,  concur 
with  one  another,  and  with  what  we  are  coming  to 
see  is  the  true  evolution  of  the  mind  of  God. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  83 

Every  day  grows  out  of  the  previous  day,  yet  may 
be  better  than  it.  There  are  no  waste  years,  no 
inclement  seasons,  in  which  the  victories  of  life  are 
suspended.  We  are  more  aware  that  one  eternal 
purpose  runs  through  them  all,  that  events  are 
coming  together,  approaching  one  center,  that  we 
have  only  to  labor  and  to  pray  and  to  wait  for  the 
approach  of  events  which  as  yet  it  has  not  entered 
our  minds  to  conceive. 

One  hardly  dares  to  rest  so  much  on  what  at 
times  seems  so  little  and  is  so  feebly  understood. 
Yet,  if  we  can  adopt  this  temper  and  are  able  to 
say  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread,  the  content- 
ment, the  continuity,  the  fulfillment  of  human  life 
are  all  secured,  and  we  move  quietly  forward  to  the 
realization  of  divine  love.  The  end  justifies  the 
delay,  and  stands  with  the  beginning  a  completed 
plan  of  salvation. 

FORGIVE  US  OUR  DEBTS  AS  WE  FORGIVE 
OUR  DEBTORS 

The  Lord's  Prayer  is  free  from  dogma.  Its 
doctrines  are  deeply  imbedded  in  it,  but  do  not 
rise  to  the  surface.  Dogmas  are  like  the  bones 
of  the  body,  the  more  freely  they  are  used,  and  the 
less  conspicuously  they  are  exposed,  the  better. 
In  the  petition  before  us  a  principle  is  involved  of 


84  The  Lord's  Prayer 

which  we  have  taken  only  too  little  notice, — the 
principle  of  forgiveness.  Forgiveness  and  the  oc- 
casions and  consequences  of  forgiveness  are  great 
facts  in  the  spiritual  life.  They  are  familiar  terms 
of  our  daily  experience.  We  all  have  occasion  to 
be  forgiven,  we  all  have  occasion  to  forgive,  and  we 
all  know  something  of  the  results  of  forgiveness, 
freely  granted  or  sullenly  withheld.  Bickeringsi 
quarrels,  and  injuries  are  softened  by  repentance 
and  removed  by  forgiveness.  A  man  who  never 
repents  and  never  forgives  has  no  place  in  the  social 
world,  any  more  than  a  flinty,  angular  stone  in  the 
mechanical  world.  A  man  who  cannot  forgive 
should  be  free  from  faults,  since  neither  he  nor  we 
have  any  way  of  getting  rid  of  his  faults.  If  he 
will  not  suffer  himself  to  be  washed  clean  in  the 
waters  of  repentance,  we  have  no  other  method  of 
cleansing  him.  The  possibility  of  forgiveness  is  the 
possibility  of  renewing  and  healing  our  lives  when 
they  have  miscarried.  Christian  doctrine  has  at 
times  forgotten  this  fact  and  has  put  our  relations 
to  God  on  an  unforgiving  basis,  a  basis  we  are 
utterly  unable  to  endure ;  one  which  darkens  down 
the  heavens  and  fills  them  with  disastrous  storms. 
We  have  thought  that  firmness  in  the  character  of 
God  gives  him  so  unyielding  a  hold  on  the  sinner 
as  to  preclude  forgiveness.  We  have  transferred 


The  Lord's  Prayer  85 

to  God  the  unyielding  temper  we  sometimes  see  in 
men,  the  temper  which  stands  fast  in  simple 
obstinacy  and  does  not  concern  itself  with  con- 
sequences. The  punishments  of  God  thus  be- 
come eternal  and  carry  with  them  no  touch  of  pity, 
no  renovating  power.  Christ  bids  us  to  forgive 
seventy  times  seven.  It  is  the  forgiving  temper 
which  purifies  our  earthly  atmosphere  and  makes 
it  wholesome.  Without  it  the  air  would  become 
malarious,  contagious,  deadly.  Government  does 
not  arise  above  forgiveness  into  the  frigid  regions  of 
justice,  it  rises  through  forgiveness  into  the  warm 
regions  of  love,  and  there  renews  all  the  germs  of 
life. 

There  are  three  degrees  of  relationship  among 
men,  those  of  the  household,  those  of  society,  and 
those  of  the  State.  The  last  of  these,  the  re- 
lations of  the  State,  are  the  most  artificial  and  the 
most  restricted ;  and  yet  they  are  the  ones  by  which 
we  have  most  frequently  interpreted  the  divine 
government,  forgetting  the  forbearance  and  loving 
delay  with  which  in  the  family  we  meet  the  cul- 
prit. We  put  upon  God's  government  the  weak- 
ness and  failures  of  our  own  jurisprudence.  The 
State,  from  its  lack  of  knowledge,  from  its  lack  of 
power,  from  its  lack  of  time,  can  extend  forgive- 
ness only  hesitatingly  and  reluctantly.  It  is  by  no 


86  The  Lord's  Prayer 

means  sure  that  the  tears  of  repentance  are  genu- 
ine, and  it  cannot  allow  the  door  of  forgiveness  to 
swing  at  once  on  the  touch  of  every  criminal. 
The  object  of  punishment  in  the  State  is  the  im- 
mediate safety  of  its  citizens.  It  must  be  sure 
not  only  that  repentance  strikes  deep  enough 
for  correction,  but  also — what  is  far  more  difficult 
—that  the  sense  of  the  nature  of  crime  is  in  no 
way  weakened  in  the  community  at  large  or  in 
the  criminal  class  by  apparent  repentance.  This 
ignorance  of  facts  and  of  results  greatly  retards  the 
swing  of  ethical  law  in  human  tribunals,  and  makes 
it  move  on  rusty  and  complaining  hinges. 

When  we  come  to  the  family,  whose  primary 
purpose  is  nurture,  forgiveness  is  constantly  in 
order.  We  have  as  much  forgiveness  as  we  have 
trangression,  with  the  single  caution  that  for- 
giveness stands  associated  with  repentance,  and 
that  the  two  pass  on  into  improvement.  In 
society  much  the  same  temper  prevails.  To  work 
off  the  ills  which  arise  among  men  by  forgiveness 
is  as  normal  an  act  as  to  wash  one's  hands;  as 
fitting  to  be  done  as  to  rub  out  an  old  score  in 
preparation  for  a  new  one.  The  close  association 
of  men  in  clubs  or  under  some  code  of  honor  ad- 
mits of  apology  as  a  method  of  escaping  offense, 
and  men  would  avail  themselves  more  freely  of 


The  Lord's  Prayer  87 

this  method  were  it  not  for  an  ascription  which 
sometimes  attaches  to  it  of  cowardice.  Men  are 
so  thoroughly  cowards  that  they  greatly  fear  the 
reputation  of  cowardice,  so  readily  caught  and  so 
hard  to  shake  off. 

Trained  in  these  ethical  facts  of  the  world  we 
approach  the  divine  government  and  the  divine 
mind.  We  see  in  these  laws  of  human  nature  what 
are  the  powers  with  which  we  are  dealing.  The 
discipline  which  comes  to  us  under  the  laws  of 
nature,  the  laws  of  God  is  instructive,  corrective, 
and  forbearing.  Much  is  punished,  much  is 
passed  over,  much  is  forgiven.  Our  lives  are  so 
complicated,  events  take  so  wide  a  circuit  before 
they  come  back,  our  actions  are  so  mixed  up  with 
the  actions  of  others,  that  it  may  require  careful 
analysis  to  trace  the  relations  of  our  own  conduct 
and  to  see  what,  and  in  what  way,  God  has  taught 
us. 

A  man  handles  ignorantly  the  engine  with  which 
he  is  occupied.  An  explosion  follows,  and  he 
meets  his  instruction  and  his  punishment  in  one 
result.  The  injury  may  extend,  and  is  likely  to 
extend  to  persons  who  had  nothing  to  do  with 
the  remissness.  This  is  a  consequence  of  the  rela- 
tions in  which  we  are  enclosed.  The  world  is  not 
devoted  to  the  training  of  one  man  but  of  all  men ; 


88  The  Lord's  Prayer 

not  to  men  separately  but  to  them  collectively. 
Not  a  man,  but  a  community,  a  nation,  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven,  are  to  be  the  fruit  of  discipline. 
There  is  no  matching  of  one  thing  with  one  thing 
but  all  things  together,  until  they  make  up  a  physi- 
cal, intellectual,  and  spiritual  world.  This  is  the 
purpose  which  defines  offenses,  defines  punish- 
ment, and  defines  the  path  of  progress.  The  for- 
giveness granted  must  be  fitted  to  secure  the 
welfare  of  the  world  in  its  slow  progression  upward. 

This  perpetual  retardation  of  the  movement, 
this  hinging  of  it  on  so  many  conditions  has  led 
some  to  say  there  is  no  forgiveness  in  nature. 
Causes  once  set  in  motion  are  never  arrested; 
retribution,  like  hounds  on  the  trail,  is  ever  pushing 
forward  to  the  finish.  This  assertion  is  certainly  a 
mistake.  In  purely  physical  things  there  are  an 
anticipation  and  a  prevention  of  disaster.  The 
elastic  body  recovers  from  a  blow,  and  regains  its 
form  after  pressure.  We  constantly  avail  our- 
selves of  this  quality  to  escape  a  jar  or  to  prevent 
an  accident.  If  this  evasion  of  violence  is  not 
forgiveness,  it  is  at  least  a  fitting  symbol  of  for- 
giveness; it  holds  back  the  ruin  just  ready  to  break 
in  upon  us  and  returns  us  to  the  line  of  safety. 

In  living  things  there  is  a  constant  correction  of 
wrong  tendencies,  often  a  long  and  patient  over- 


The  Lord's  Prayer  89 

looking  of  offenses.  Most  injuries  are  healed, 
most  diseases  cured.  The  one  astonishing  thing 
is  the  amount  of  forgiveness  extended  to  a  lusty 
young  man,  before  the  final  blow  is  delivered.  We 
thus  speak  of  the  vis  medicatrix,  the  healing  hand 
of  nature,  the  tenderness  with  which  she  wards  off 
disaster  and  repairs  damages.  If  this  is  not  for- 
giveness, it  plays  the  same  part  in  the  dependence 
of  events. 

When  we  come  to  the  world  of  human  action 
forgiveness  at  once  shows  a  supreme  power.  It 
cuts  evil  short,  restores  beneficent  feeling,  puts 
staggering  virtue  on  its  feet  again,  and  unites  men 
once  more  in  the  pursuit  of  their  common  welfare. 
The  fruits  of  forgiveness  are  marvelous  in  human 
life.  It  makes  light  of  the  frailty  of  men,  corrects 
their  weakness,  and  gives  life  a  new  birth  at  the 
very  moment  of  its  failure.  There  is  hardly  an- 
other fact  in  the  spiritual  world  so  undeniable,  so 
marvelous,  so  renovating  as  well-timed  forgive- 
ness ;  correcting  our  thoughts,  softening  our  hearts 
in  the  moment  of  belligerency,  and  converting  the 
evil  impulse  into  a  new  send-off  in  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven.  No  man  is  a  saint  who  has  not  often 
forgiven  and  often  been  forgiven. 

Forgiveness  implies  two  persons  and  two  re- 
ciprocal states;  sorrow  in  the  offender,  relenting 


90  The  Lord's  Prayer 

tenderness  in  the  offended.  Repentance  has  very 
different  depths,  proportioned  partly  to  the  gravity 
of  the  offense  and  still  more  to  the  mind's  appre- 
hension of  it.  Adequate  repentance  means  at 
once  confession,  correction,  restitution.  It  is  a 
discovery  to  the  soul  itself  of  its  own  sin,  and  a 
cleansing  of  the  soul  itself  in  the  bitter  waters  of 
sorrow.  It  puts  away  the  trangression  and  re- 
turns with  renewed  desire  to  the  path  of  obedi- 
ence. There  may  be  a  long  and  bitter  struggle  in 
this  return,  but  the  soul  never  abandons  it.  For- 
giveness, on  the  other  hand,  recognizes  this  new 
attitude  of  the  penitent,  rejoices  in  it,  concurs 
with  it.  There  is  no  act  more  characteristic  of  a 
pure,  spiritual  state  than  forgiveness.  God  is 
said  to  rejoice  more  over  one  sinner  that  repenteth 
than  over  ninety  and  nine  just  persons  who  need  no 
repentance.  On  the  other  hand,  no  sweeter  relief 
ever  conies  to  pain  than  that  which  springs  from 
repentance,  issuing  in  confession  and  calling  out 
forgiveness.  This  knitting  of  souls  together  by 
forgiveness  is  a  great  spiritual  fact,  tested  many 
thousand  times  in  many  thousand  ways.  It  is 
sufficient  of  itself  to  establish  the  existence  of  a 
spiritual  kingdom,  and  lies  naturally  as  a  central 
fact,  first,  in  our  relation  to  God,  the  fountain  of 
these  pure  waters  of  life,  and  second,  in  our  re- 


The  Lord's  Prayer  91 

lation  to  each  other,  bathing  anew  in  this  divine 
affluent. 

Though  this  renewal  of  strength  is  complete 
only  in  the  hearty  assent  of  two  persons,  its 
proper  initiative  is  found  with  the  wrongdoer; 
and  this  return  of  the  soul  to  truth  does  not  alto- 
gether lose  its  healing  power  even  if  forgiveness  is 
withheld.  In  offenses  between  men  the  wrong  is 
more  frequently  not  wholly  on  one  side,  and  the 
better  temper  may  return  equally  and  concurrently 
to  both  minds.  Though  the  refusal  to  forgive  mars 
the  pleasure  of  the  penitent,  it  does  not  destroy  the 
healing  power  of  the  penitence  itself.  We  are 
clean  when  we  are  washed,  though  the  anointing 
oil  is  not  extended  to  us.  Yet  the  true  communal 
character  of  the  spiritual  world  is  seen  in  the  fact 
that  two  spirits  meet  each  other  in  repentance  and 
forgiveness  and  are  both  strengthened  without 
any  exact  apportionment  of  wrongs.  In  a  com- 
munity quarrel  where  a  bitter  temper  prevails,  and 
cruel,  unyielding  passions  swell  like  a  torrent,  all 
hearts  inflamed,  all  minds  irritable,  forgiveness, 
like  the  coming  warmth  of  spring,  softens  the  air, 
steals  away  the  anger,  until  peace  and  good-will 
return  once  more.  When  we  see  how  certainly 
an  unforgiving  spirit  provokes  transgression,  it 
is  strange  that  we  ever  thought  that  God,  at 


92  The  Lord's  Prayer 

any  time  or  in  any  place  or  for  any  reason, 
could  fail  to  unite  the  penitent  in  reconciling 
love  to  himself.  In  the  degree  in  which  one 
pushes  toward  the  universal  life,  will  he  extend 
forgiveness  to  every  transgressor  that  seeks  it  in 
penitence.  The  only  limitation  is  the  genuine, 
corrective  character  of  the  penitence.  The  wound 
is  to  be  healed,  not  converted  into  a  running  sore. 
The  perfection  of  God's  character  makes  him  alert 
to  the  cry  of  the  transgressor.  It  is  in  part  for  this 
reason  that  we  make  all  offenses  also  offenses 
against  God,  that  we  may  call  in  his  parental  love, 
make  him  a  witness  to  our  return,  and  feel  the  heal- 
ing power  of  his  grace.  Herein  we  get  a  purchase 
of  love  against  offender  and  offended  alike,  a  love 
that  lightens  up  all  the  dark  retreats  of  sin,  and 
makes  them  sharers  in  the  daylight  of  divine  grace. 
This  pervasive  warmth  renews  once  more  the  pro- 
cesses of  life. 

We  cannot  receive  forgiveness  freely  except  as 
we  can  extend  it  effectively.  Forgive  us  our  debts 
as  we  forgive  our  debtors.  These  words  may  mean 
in  the  degree  in  which  we  forgive  our  debtors,  or 
they  may  mean  because  we  forgive  our  debtors. 
Though  the  first  rendering  of  the  words,  in  which 
we  ask  to  be  forgiven  in  the  measure  in  which  we 
forgive  others,  may  seem  to  be  a  dangerous  pe- 


The  Lord's  Prayer  93 

tition  with  which  to  stand  before  God,  yet  a  little 
consideration  shows  us  that  the  two  interpretations 
come  to  much  the  same  result.  The  forgiving 
temper  is  the  very  condition  by  which  alone  we 
can  receive  forgiveness.  Forgiveness  has  purifying 
power  only  in  the  penitent  spirit,  but  a  penitent 
spirit  cannot  co-exist  with  an  unforgiving  one. 
The  depth  of  our  charity  toward  others  measures 
the  depth  of  our  sorrow  in  view  of  our  own  offenses. 
The  obverse  and  reverse  of  a  sound  temper  do  not 
bear  contradictory  legends.  We  enter  into  for- 
giveness, whether  it  is  extended  to  us  or  extended 
by  us,  by  virtue  of  the  tenderness  which  accom- 
panies repentance.  Forgiveness  passes  by  an  un- 
forgiving temper  and  leaves  it  unblessed.  We 
meet  the  mind  of  God  and  we  meet  other  minds 
only  in  the  fellowship  of  penitence  and  forgiveness. 
As  we  forgive,  and  only  as  we  forgive,  are  we  for- 
given. There  is  one  and  the  same  temper  on 
either  side.  It  is  less  difficult  to  forgive  than  it  is 
to  seek  and  to  receive  forgiveness.  If  we  cannot 
compass  the  first,  we  certainly  cannot  accomplish 
the  second,  We  can  receive  forgiveness  only  in 
the  temper  and  in  the  degree  in  which  we  grant  it. 
We  are  reminded  of  this  in  the  petition,  Forgive  us 
our  debts  as  we  forgive  our  debtors. 

Forgiveness    is    an    effacement    of     sin.     The 


94  The  Lord's  Prayer 

wound  heals  without  a  scar.  Recovery  means  a 
better  condition  than  before  the  sickness.  Mind 
and  heart  gain  new  vital  forces.  This  is  an  ulti- 
mate fact  in  the  spiritual  world.  We  can  be  as 
sure  of  it  as  of  the  fact  that  injury  begets  anger, 
and  anger  calls  out  further  anger.  The  true  atone- 
ment of  sin  is  repentance  and  forgiveness,  the  resto- 
ration of  fellowship  by  means  of  them.  As  two 
drops  of  water,  touching,  instantly  rearrange 
themselves  around  one  center,  so  two  hearts 
brought  together  in  repentance  come  at  once  under 
a  new  attraction.  This  is  the  nature  of  spirit, 
this  is  the  divine  method.  We  know  not  exactly 
how  or  when  the  contact  may  occur,  but  all  de- 
pends upon  it.  The  delays,  shiftings,  and  acci- 
dents of  time,  like  the  shaking  of  a  screen,  may 
seem  awkward,  but  they  help  on  this  vital  process 
of  union  between  living  things.  We  may  worry 
along  in  obscure  paths,  we  may  search  for  happi- 
ness with  an  ill-temper  in  many  directions,  but  the 
blessing  will  come  when  it  does  come  under  this 
old,  old  formula  of  repentance  and  forgiveness,  a 
formula  that  our  Lord  put  into  our  daily  prayer: 
Forgive  us  our  debts  as  we  forgive  our  debtors.  Sin 
perishes  in  this  presence  of  a  forgiving  temper 
and  love  springs  up  anew.  The  soul  comes  under 
the  redemptive  process,  salvation  begins  at  once. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  95 

This  experience  of  forgiveness  is  the  most  pene- 
trative and  joyful  of  any  that  we  undergo.  It  is 
springtime,  all  buds  are  bursting.  We  know  not 
at  what  point  under  our  very  feet  some  new  form 
of  life  may  appear.  The  leaves  rustle  in  the  winds, 
the  birds  are  in  the  air.  The  sweet,  inexhaustible 
summer  has  begun. 

We  often  figure  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  as  a 
place  of  rest.  It  is  a  place  of  rest  but  of  rest 
through  measured,  well-ordered  activity.  In  the 
warm,  fruitful  soil  of  forgiveness,  delays  and 
errors  find  correction.  Better  things,  more  re- 
wardful,  more  successful,  spring  up.  Blindness 
and  weariness  pass  away.  We  have  cast  them  out 
by  repentance,  and  the  world  greets  us  again  in 
forgiveness.  It  matters  not  that  we  are  at  work 
where  one's  hands  and  one's  garments  are  often 
soiled.  We  are  also  at  work  where  they  can  easily 
be  washed  again  in  pure,  living  water.  We  can 
forgive,  we  can  be  forgiven,  and  thereby  mount 
one  step  nearer  heaven. 

There  is,  it  is  true,  a  fearful  contrast  to  this 
ascent  of  the  soul  by  forgiveness,  with  unending 
stroke  of  wing;  it  is  the  inability  to  repent  of  a 
familiar  sin,  a  mind  made  dull  and  heavy  by  temp- 
tation, powers  unstrung,  not  strengthened  by  re- 
pentance. We  thus  by  betraying  repentance 


96  The  Lord's  Prayer 

reach  a  point  of  collapse  from  which  we  cannot 
recover,  a  point  in  which  a  mawkish  phase  of 
sorrow  may  remain  to  us  with  no  renovating  power. 
A  man  long  crushed  under  a  vicious  habit,  like 
intemperance,  may  shed  tears  which  have  no  more 
significance  than  the  drops  which  creep  through  the 
crevices  of  a  weeping  rock. 

One  may  lose  the  healing  power  of  forgiveness 
because  one  has  steadily  misapplied  and  wasted  it. 
It  is  a  fact  of  this  kind  which  makes  life  critical. 
Vital  forces  are  at  work  and  they  must  either 
accomplish  their  beneficent  purpose,  or,  failing  of 
it,  put  it  more  and  more  beyond  our  reach.  We 
cannot  offer  day  by  day  this  prayer  for  forgiveness 
without  strengthening  or  weakening  the  processes 
of  life.  The  power  of  repentance,  the  renewal  of 
affection,  the  renovation  of  the  will,  must  become 
a  living  experience  or  one  in  which  we  suffer  per- 
petual effacement.  It  is  from  these  paths  of  in- 
difference and  danger  that  we  pluck  our  feet  by  the 
ever-renewed  petition,  Forgive  us  our  debts  as  we 
forgive  our  debtors.  Unless  we  can  urge  this 
prayer,  feeling  each  time  its  cleansing  power,  we 
are  falling  below  the  very  conditions  of  life,  and 
making  harder  and  yet  harder  the  way  of  trans- 
gression. It  is  the  daily  escape  from  sin  by  re- 
pentance and  forgiveness  that  makes  our  lives 


The  Lord's  Prayer  97 

glad  and  buoyant,  and  lifts  them  into  the  divine 
presence. 

LEAD  US  NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION,  BUT  DELIVER  US 
FROM  EVIL 

This  language  illustrates  the  fact  that  the 
Scriptures,  like  all  free  and  comprehensive  forms 
of  speech,  are  to  be  interpreted  under  the  light 
of  the  ideas  and  of  the  conditions  involved  in 
them;  and  not  merely  as  verbal  propositions. 
Men  have  spent  much  ingenuity,  especially  in 
legal  documents,  in  wrapping  up  a  given  purpose  in 
phrases  so  snug  and  exact  that  the  language  and 
the  thought  should  no  more  part  company,  but 
should  convey  to  every  mind  the  same  impression. 
The  effort  has  been  but  partially  successful.  A 
little  ingenuity  has  so  expanded  the  expression  or 
shriveled  the  idea,  that  the  language  and  the  mean- 
ing have  separated,  and  the  idea  has  come  to 
rattle  about,  like  a  withered  kernel  in  the  shell 
which  contains  it.  Men  have  never  prospered 
in  so  tying  the  wings  of  thought  that  it  should 
remain  on  the  same  perch  forever.  Language 
is  a  reflecting  surface,  that  yields  its  images 
according  to  the  position  of  the  eye  that  re- 
ceives them.  Mind  and  language  meet  each 
other,  like  the  steel  and  the  flint;  the  spark  de- 


98  The  Lord's  Prayer 

pends  on  the  force  of  the  collision.  We  might, 
determined  on  a  critical  rendering  of  this  petition, 
infer  that  God  was  accustomed  to  lead  us  into 
temptation,  and  that  our  danger  arose  from  this 
circumstance;  as  the  danger  of  a  child  may  arise 
from  the  curiosity  of  its  nurse. 

Yet  the  language  is  easily  intelligible  to  one 
under  the  stress  of  sin.  To  one,  like  an  inebriate, 
on  whom  temptation  is  constantly  stealing,  put- 
ting to  rout  his  feeble  purpose,  the  petition  is 
perfectly  plain.  He  can  pray  with  perfect  com- 
prehension Lead  me  not  into  temptation,  but  deliver 
me  from  evil.  No  struggle  overtakes  a  man  with 
himself  which  does  not  at  once  give  this  petition 
meaning,  force,  hope;  rallying  the  soul  to  God's 
grace  and  calling  that  grace  to  its  aid. 

Comprehension  comes  with  the  feeling  that  the 
methods  of  the  world  and  God's  methods  are 
identical;  that  we  meet  God  when  we  meet  the 
world,  and  that  in  this  daily  discipline  we  need  the 
sense  of  divine  guidance  and  aid.  We  are  chil- 
dren. The  thoughts  and  actions  of  the  child  should 
coalesce  with  those  of  the  parent,  and  thus  safety 
be  found.  If  the  child  separates  itself  from  the 
counsel  of  the  parent  presumptuously  or  passion- 
ately, a  conflict  sets  in  by  which  wisdom  and  good- 
ness become  repellent  to  it.  The  loss  from  this 


The  Lord's  Prayer  99 

strife  is  immediate.  The  parent  has  occasion  to 
adapt  his  actions  to  the  child,  and  the  child  has 
occasion  to  yield  his  ignorance  and  inexperience  to 
the  parent  who  has  him  in  charge.  The  constant 
petition  may  well  be  in  the  mind  of  the  child  that 
the  thing  required  of  him  may  not  be  beyond  his 
strength,  and  that  the  strength  of  the  father  may 
be  with  him  in  its  performance.  In  proportion  as 
weakness  and  power,  ignorance  and  wisdom  meet 
each  other  in  the  same  task  is  this  need  of  guidance 
felt. 

When  we  pray  Lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but 
deliver  us  from  evil,  we  feel  the  critical  character  of 
the  world :  how  far  off  goodness  is  from  any  ready 
attainment,  and  how  much  we  need  that  God's 
hand  should  keep  close  hold  upon  us  and  we  upon 
it.  We  are  not  praying  that  the  world  may  be 
remade;  that  no  tasks  and  no  dangers  may  come 
to  us;  but  that  we  may  be  saved  from  any  unrea- 
sonable boldness  or  passionate  resistance  that 
will  take  from  us  all  security  in  the  moment  of 
trial.  So  the  Psalmist  prays  "Keep  back  thy 
servant  from  presumptuous  sins,  let  them  not  have 
dominion  over  me."  The  mind  is  in  search  of 
strength,  and  that  strength  it  hopes  to  find  in  the 
divine  strength;  it  is  in  search  of  safety,  and  that 
safety  it  expects  to  find  in  the  divine  love.  There 


ioo  The  Lord's  Prayer 

is  here  no  desire  to  alter  God's  action,  but  to  get 
the  full  benefit  of  it ;  no  wish  to  separate  ourselves 
from  his  discipline,  but  to  find  him  in  it.  The 
world,  as  fitted  to  us  and  we  to  it,  is  our  starting 
point,  but  that  which  alone  can  make  this  union 
fruitful  and  enjoyable  is  God's  presence.  No 
matter  in  how  rich  a  soil  the  seed  may  be  planted 
it  must  still  be  visited  by  the  sunlight.  The 
discipline  of  life  lies  at  this  point,  a  slow  coming  out 
into  manhood  and  the  repose  of  strength  by  virtue 
of  the  mastery  of  temptation.  The  prayer  recog- 
nizes temptations  as  pressing  us  toward  the 
danger  line;  temptations  that  are  blinding  the 
eyes,  weakening  the  will,  and  preparing  to  swallow 
us  up,  as  the  ocean  engulfs  the  spent  swimmer. 
Deliver  us,  O  God,  deliver  us.  Restore  the  gifts 
we  were  about  to  squander,  and  were  ready  to 
lose. 

All  training  involves  temptation.  It  is  under 
temptation  and  against  temptation  that  our  pow- 
ers are  developed.  The  growth  of  powers  and 
the  loss  of  powers  are  wrapped  up  in  themselves. 
Human  powers  are  vital,  not  mechanical ;  they  are 
subject  to  no  self-regulating  process.  We  are 
entrusted  to  ourselves  and  our  safety  lies  in  the 
manner  in  which  we  meet  temptation.  The  good 
soldier  must  bear  hardship;  must  encounter  the 


The  Lord's  Prayer  101 

struggles  incident  to  his  calling;  and  for  that 
reason  the  more  he  needs  a  supreme  generalship 
that  his  sacrifices  may  not  be  lost. 

This  gives  us  our  first  element  in  human  culture, 
evil,  in  the  form  of  temptation,  to  be  overcome. 
The  question  then  arises  how  far  shall  we  evade 
the  temptation,  how  far  shall  we  meet  and  van- 
quish it?  When  does  our  prayer  take  on  the  form, 
Lead  us  not  into  temptation,  and  when  the  form, 
Deliver  us  from  evil?  We  are  always  standing  in 
reference  to  evil  in  these  critical  circumstances  of 
avoidance  and  victory.  The  poise  of  spiritual  life 
is  maintained  at  this  point  of  conflict,  here  takes  on 
its  commanding  form.  When  discipline  and  duty 
define  our  path,  we  have  only  to  walk  in  it  cheer- 
fully, confronting  its  dangers.  Ask  me  not  to 
define  these  two  words,  discipline  and  duty.  They 
take  a  definition  under  each  man's  experience,  and, 
when  the  force  of  them  is  felt,  they  brace  the 
mind  against  evil  as  the  will  braces  the  body 
against  contagion.  On  the  other  hand,  indolence 
and  indulgence  relax  the  strength,  open  the  pores, 
and  make  the  man  accessible  to  physical  and 
spiritual  malaria.  We  are  not  to  rummage  the 
world  for  evil,  we  are  to  encounter  it  when  it  comes, 
as  we  encounter  all  danger,  with  a  fearless  mind. 
This  tension  of  life  is  its  own  protection. 


102  The  Lord's  Prayer 

The  question  comes  to  us  in  the  training  of 
children,  to  what  temptations  shall  we  expose 
them?  Some  object  to  our  public  schools,  so 
subject  to  rude  contact  and  vulgarity.  But  the 
principle  seems  to  hold  that  we  must  meet  the 
ordinary  dangers  of  life,  dangers  that  we  reduce 
by  meeting  them,  dangers  that  we  have  not  created 
and  from  which  we  cannot  go  into  hiding.  More 
men  fall  by  cowardice,  are  slain  when  they  uncover 
their  backs  by  running,  than  were  ever  slain  in  the 
front  rank.  Those  who  withdraw  from  the  public 
into  an  exclusive  companionship  of  their  own 
plunge  headlong  into  pride  and  arrogance,  far  more 
mischievous,  far  more  congenial  to  human  nature 
than  vulgarity.  The  narrow  circle  often  becomes 
the  hotbed  of  vice,  the  contagious  temper  of  self- 
assertion  prevails,  which  would  have  been  blown 
away  in  the  open  air.  The  supreme  feelings  of 
sympathy  and  love  root  themselves  in  the  open 
field,  and  are  nourished  by  daily  sunlight.  Life, 
human  life,  becomes  mean,  narrow,  pimpling,  if  we 
shut  it  up.  It  calls  for  the  whole  world  in  which 
to  grow  and  to  thrive,  passing  into  its  own  proper 
strength. 

The  temptations  we  have  chiefly  to  fear  are 
those  which  already  have  hold  upon  us,  which 
have  found  some  weak  spot  in  our  character  which 


The  Lord's  Prayer  103 

they  daily  assail,  some  pressure  of  circumstances 
to  which  we  have  often  and  again  given  way. 
Here  the  sentinel  must  be  planted  and  the  watch 
kept.  If  our  appetites  are  domineering,  our 
passions  violent,  our  irritations  constant ;  if  praise 
intoxicates,  and  censure  angers  us,  and  success 
confuses  our  judgment,  we  have  pressing  need  of 
the  petition,  Lead  us  not  into  temptation.  If  our 
heads  swim,  we  are  not  to  seek  high  places.  Put 
a  knife  to  thy  throat,  says  the  proverbialist,  if 
thou  be  a  man  given  to  appetite.  The  world  is  full 
of  the  folly  of  conceit,  and  has  little  of  the  wisdom 
of  humility.  The  fine  powers  of  Robert  Burns  did 
not  save  him  from  walking  straight  over  the  preci- 
pice which  lay  in  his  path.  We  all  have  occasion 
for  that  apprehension  of  defeat  which  finds  ex- 
pression in  the  petition,  Lead  us  not  into  temp- 
tation. The  courageous  man  estimates  danger  at 
its  true  value,  and  so  is  delivered  from  it.  Rash- 
ness is  a  lack  of  equipoise,  a  prophecy  of  failure. 
The  rash  man  is  trampled  down  by  the  herd  he 
thought  easily  to  turn  aside.  How  many  armies 
going  to  battle  have  carried  shackles  for  their 
captives  which  have  proved  to  be  their  own  chains. 
This  timid  petition  is  the  soul's  real  strength. 

However  much  wisdom  we  may  show  in  avoid- 
ing temptation,  temptation  is  sure  to  come.     This 


104  The  Lord's  Prayer 

renders  life  a  battle,  and  the  battle  being  on,  our 
cry  becomes  Deliver  us  from  evil.  These  two 
parts  of  the  petition  may  seem  to  indicate  a  timid, 
unheroic  temper.  We  must  penetrate  to  the  sub- 
stance of  the  prayer  before  this  impression  dis- 
appears. There  is  only  one  deliverance  from  evil, 
power  over  it.  Our  battle  must  be  fought  to  a 
finish.  We  are  saved  in  fighting  a  successful  fight. 
We  invoke  the  aid  of  Heaven  and  go  forward.  The 
battles  of  righteousness  call  for  foresight,  caution, 
prudence;  but  they  equally  demand  courage, 
staying  power,  trust.  The  apostle  exhorts  us, 
"Having  done  all  to  stand."  The  timidity  with 
which  we  avoid  temptation  passes  over  into  the 
courage  with  which  we  confront  it.  Our  deliver- 
ance is  a  free  passage  into  the  victory  of  wisdom 
and  love,  a  reunion  with  the  mind  of  God.  This  is 
the  primary  service  of  the  petition;  not  retreat,  not 
flight,  but  the  sense  that  we  are  waging  a  holy  war. 
The  impression  which  this  petition  should  make 
upon  us  is  that  we  are  never  alone,  are  always  in 
the  midst  of  a  predetermined  struggle.  Things  may 
seem  to  make  against  us ;  we  may  think  our  lives 
about  to  be  overwhelmed  by  accidents.  Not  so; 
many  more  things  are  making  for  us.  We  must 
wait  for  the  recruits  God  is  sending  to  us;  for  the 
years  yet  to  come  in  which  his  blessings  are  being 


The  Lord's  Prayer  105 

gathered.  We  are  in  a  world  not  subdued  to  our 
hand,  nor  even  to  the  divine  hand;  yet,  once  sub- 
dued, it  will  pour  power  and  pleasure  into  our  laps. 
If  God  tarries,  wait  for  him;  he  will  not  tarry. 
The  frontier  man  drives  his  plow  around  stumps, 
under  and  over  stones.  If  he  wearies  of  his  toil, 
the  wild  growth  sets  in  again;  if  he  perseveres  in  it, 
fruitful  and  well- tilled  fields  lie  before  him.  Na- 
ture is  with  him,  and  the  two  are  sure  to  conquer. 
Any  serious  movement,  any  movement  among 
physical  forces  in  the  line  of  intellectual  develop- 
ment or  of  spiritual  growth  is  never  without  the 
divine  presence,  directing,  cheering,  sustaining  it. 
There  is  in  us  and  with  us  superintendence, 
guidance,  comfort.  We  are  not  left  without  re- 
sources and  without  escape.  The  strife  is  not 
hopeless,  the  defeat  is  not  absolute.  The  winter 
cold  may  be  on  us,  severe,  cruel,  hard  to  bear; 
farther  on  in  the  year  there  is  warmth,  deeper  down 
in  the  soil  there  is  life ;  wait  for  them.  Life  may  be 
measured  by  the  disasters  it  has  passed  through, 
it  is  not  wasted  by  them.  There  is  always  a  for- 
lorn hope  ready  for  realization,  a  sympathy  with 
work  and  suffering  in  which  the  good  are  all  with 
us.  It  is  with  this  constant  sense  of  the  nearness 
of  God  to  us,  by  an  enveloping  and  supporting 
providence,  that  we  carry  our  lives  each  day  on- 


io6  The  Lord's  Prayer 

ward,  with  the  prayer,  Lead  us  not  into  tempta- 
tion, the  temptation  of  arrogance  or  of  despair. 
Deliver  us  from  evil,  those  evils  that  press  hard 
upon  us,  hungry  wolves  eager  to  devour  us.  The 
children  of  God  are  not  an  army  misled,  am- 
bushed, and  slaughtered  to  no  purpose.  A  new 
bloom  will  soon  cover  the  bloody  soil.  We  are 
moving  with  events  and  marching  under  a  leader- 
ship which  will  make  the  prayer  and  the  response, 
the  danger  and  the  deliverance  one  experience. 
We  are  abashed  when  we  think  how  much  we  fear, 
how  little  we  have  occasion  to  fear ;  how  many  have 
borne  a  wearisome  battle  and  suffered  a  long  de- 
feat, while  we  have  entered  almost  at  once  into 
the  blessings  of  labor. 

There  is  no  place  more  lonely,  more  forsaken 
than  the  world  without  God.  So  much  good 
comes  near  us  that  we  attain  not,  so  many  mis- 
haps fall  heavily  upon  us  which  we  are  not  able  to 
bear.  Beautiful  years,  happy  friendships,  con- 
soling love  are  swept  behind  us,  lost  as  visions 
of  good  that  return  not.  But  God  with  us  and  we 
with  him,  and  a  heart  of  love  beats  ever  even 
under  these  ribs  of  death.  The  greatest  good  is 
still  before  us.  Deliverance  remains  the  last 
thing,  the  most  emphatic  thing,  the  thing  that 
never  fails  the  world  in  which  we  are. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  107 

This  petition  also  teaches  us  that  we  are  not 
dealing  with  trifles,  wasting  our  time  in  things 
ready  to  vanish.  We  are  not  stumbling  to  no 
purpose  into  temptations,  that  come  and  go  at 
random.  The  divine  hand  is  in  them  all;  they 
may  all  purify  and  build  up  our  lives.  By  means  of 
them  all  we  may  come  nearer  to  God.  When  we 
confront  evil,  God  lends  a  hand,  the  contention 
is  his.  When  we  are  safe,  it  is  because  the  mantle 
of  his  providence  has  been  cast  over  us.  When  we 
have  done  good,  it  is  because  we  have  found  out 
his  thought.  If  no  purpose  of  reach  and  mo- 
ment were  involved  in  our  lives,  events  might 
seem  big  or  little,  they  would  all  be  little.  The 
hills  may  seem  high  or  low,  it  is  only  a  ques- 
tion of  our  experience,  and  our  experience  may 
at  any  moment  be  altered.  But  if  a  life  is  to  be 
achieved,  truth  to  be  understood,  goodness  to  be 
felt,  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven  to  be  framed  in  eternal 
strength,  things  at  once  take  on  measurement  and 
importance  in  reference  to  these  objects.  The 
large  and  the  little  get  definition,  and  slight  things 
are  turned  to  great  account.  A  day's  work  is 
taken  into  large  fellowship;  every  stone  finds 
a  place  somewhere  in  the  temple  of  God.  When 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  the  question  involved, 
a  kingdom  which  has  been  a-building  so  many 


io8  The  Lord's  Prayer 

ages,  a  kingdom  as  yet  so  far  from  completion; 
when  we  understand  how  great  are  its  possibilities, 
how  innumerable  its  liabilities,  how  many  scoff 
at  it,  how  many  weary  of  it,  how  many  wrap  all 
labor  and  life  about  it,  we  shall  feel  at  once  there 
is  nothing  negligible,  nothing  little,  all  things  have 
to  do  with  its  coming.  The  temptation  that  over- 
comes pushes  one  spirit  backward,  the  temptation 
that  is  overcome  helps  many  forward.  All  sin 
cleansed  away,  all  virtue  attained,  verify  the  king- 
dom, spread  daylight  through  the  whole  heavens. 
A  man  pursues  an  honest  business  honestly.  His 
prosperity,  like  a  pure  spring  breaking  from  the 
hillside,  proclaims  the  wholesome  circulation  of  the 
world.  If  the  right  thing  can  be  done  success- 
fully once,  twice,  thrice,  it  becomes  the  law  of  the 
world,  beginning  to  rule  the  world.  If  one  in 
political  life  is  truly  a  public  servant,  thrusting 
back  all  personal  advantage,  he  becomes  both  a 
proof  of  what  may  be  done  and  a  prophecy  of 
what  will  be  done.  The  self-forgetfulness,  assid- 
uity, and  gentleness  with  which  we  build  the  home 
bring  peace  to  society,  disprove  the  cynicism  of 
men,  and  disclose  the  true  goal  of  life.  Though 
the  battle  becomes  more  extended,  and  takes  on 
new  heat,  the  fit  thing  is  ever  winning  fresh  power. 
It  is  as  if  some  new  ingredient  had  been  cast  into 


The  Lord's  Prayer  109 

the  smelting-pot ;  the  fierce  effervescence  indicates 
some  favorable  combination.  Ground  gained,  bet- 
ter forms  of  union,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  are 
the  history  of  the  world,  its  inevitable  evolution. 
How  certainly  have  inferior  forms  of  life  given 
place  to  superior  ones.  The  instructed  hand  of 
man,  caressing  the  world,  brings  forward  new 
plants,  trees,  animals,  that  yield  larger  service  and 
bestow  more  pleasure;  all  built  together  in  more 
fortunate  relations.  As  we  approach  this  harmony 
of  Heaven,  we  see  how  deeply  it  has  been  planted 
in  the  physical  and  spiritual  conditions  about  us, 
waiting  upon  our  handiwork.  The  ocean,  tossed 
by  the  storm,  itself  purified  and  the  air  purified, 
sinks  back  into  peace.  We  share  the  exultation 
of  the  prophet.  "Sing,  O  ye  heavens,  for  the 
Lord  hath  done  it.  Shout,  ye  lower  parts  of  the 
earth,  break  forth  into  singing,  ye  mountains.  O 
forest  and  every  tree  therein." 

We  are  led  also  to  see  that  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  self-sustaining  and  self-propagating. 
Like  a  fresh  species,  it  has  the  equipoise  of  the 
old  form  and  the  vigorous  endowment  of  the  new 
one.  It  is  indigenous  to  the  world.  The  reactions 
of  goodness  are  as  beneficent  as  its  actions.  If  it  is 
blessed  to  receive  it  is  at  the  same  time  more 
blessed  to  give.  To  give  is  the  very  soul  of 


no  The  Lord's  Prayer 

goodness,  and  it  unites  and  strengthens  all  hearts. 
As  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  established,  higher, 
wider,  more  delicate,  and  more  musical  harmonies 
set  in.  It  stands  fast  because  it  is  more  potent 
and  more  proportionate  in  all  its  parts. 

But  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  has  not  yet  come. 
There  are  only  patches  of  light  here  and  there. 
Neither  we  nor  our  fellow-men  are  yet  ready  for  it. 
Our  appetites  are  not  trained  into  service,  our 
desires  subdued  into  order,  our  affections  ex- 
tended and  softened  to  the  needs  of  men.  We 
grow  weary  of  the  general  welfare  and  crave  our 
own  indulgences.  Temptations  press  upon  us, 
and  we  cannot  rise  to  the  occasion,  the  magnificent 
occasion,  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Opinions 
and  actions,  our  own  and  others,  become  obscure 
and  perplexed,  and  we  stand  wearing  our  sandals 
though  our  feet  are  on  holy  ground.  So  standing 
so  hesitating,  so  inwardly  confused,  we  need  the 
final  petition  of  our  Lord's  Prayer,  Lead  us  not 
into  temptation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil.  We  need 
to  feel  that  we  are  never  alone,  never  left  to  our 
own  interests  simply.  We  are  taking  part  in  a 
comprehensive  whole,  and  must  find  our  place  in  it. 
Our  own  work  rendered,  we  shall  be  gathered  into, 
supported  by,  and  fed  from  that  universal  life, 
which  makes  all  sound  and  complete.  Nothing 


The  Lord's  Prayer  in 

will  perish  in  our  hands,  or  become  false  and  in- 
significant. Our  absorbing  desire  is,  deliver  us 
from  haste,  deliver  us  from  indolence,  deliver  us 
from  self-indulgence.  Plant  our  feet  in  the  paths 
of  life,  with  the  feet  of  the  good  who  Ihave  gone 
before  us  and  the  good  who  are  about  us.  De- 
liver us  from  every  snare  of  temptation,  that  our 
thoughts,  our  hopes,  our  actions  may  all  enter  in 
to  crown  the  one  issue  of  life. 

FOR  THINE  IS  THE  KINGDOM,  AND  THE  POWER,  AND 
THE  GLORY,  FOREVER.      AMEN. 

These  last  words  of  the  Lord's  Prayer  are  words 
of  summation  and  of  ascription.  We  accumulate 
in  them  the  impression  which  the  prayer  has 
made  on  our  own  minds,  and  we  transfer  our 
thoughts  from  the  feeble,  necessitous  human  side 
to  the  ample,  superabounding,  divine  side  where 
all  is  kingdom,  power,  glory,  now  and  evermore. 
For  the  most  part,  in  human  affairs,  power  and 
honor  are  built  upon  and  go  with  government, 
authority;  in  divine  affairs,  the  power  and  the 
glory  are  in  the  kingdom,  come  pouring  up  through 
it  into  the  light,  and  leave  it  behind  them  as  their 
imperishable  trail  of  strength.  Such  is  the  feeling 
with  which  we  conclude  the  Lord's  Prayer.  The 


ii2  The  Lord's  Prayer 

kingdom,  the  power,  the  glory  have  been  and  ever 
shall  be  the  presence  of  God  in  the  world. 

All  men  of  any  scope  of  thought  discover  a 
kingdom,  or  kingdoms,  of  one  kind  or  another,  in 
the  world.  The  world  is  not  a  place  of  confusion, 
of  unreconciled  qualities  and  quantities,  even  on 
its  surface.  It  is  always  passing  into  order,  into 
peaceful,  harmonious,  dominant  relations.  There 
is  the  mineral  kingdom,  the  vegetable  kingdom, 
the  animal  kingdom,  the  rational  kingdom;  wher- 
ever the  eye  moves,  these  connections  emerge,  and 
science  is  ever  proclaiming  and  dwelling  on  these 
terms  of  concord.  There  is  no  lack  of  law  in  the 
world.  If  the  law  is  not  recognized  as  divine,  na- 
ture is  immediately  personified  and  we  speak  of 
Nature's  laws  and  of  the  ways  in  which  she  is  ever 
openly  or  secretly  building  up  her  kingdoms  under 
the  feet  of  men,  or  over  the  heads  of  men,  for  their 
support  and  protection. 

Not  a  man  is  willing  to  surrender  the  notion  of  a 
kingdom  in  the  world.  They  are  all  installing 
themselves  as  heralds  and  interpreters  of  that 
kingdom.  If  we  have  no  king,  yet  we  have  a 
kingdom,  and  busy  ourselves  endlessly  with  its 
affairs,  expounding  its  precepts,  enforcing  its 
principles,  asserting  its  authority. 

Now  the  Lord's  Prayer  is  at  one  with  science, 


The  Lord's  Prayer  113 

at  one  with  the  minds  of  men,  in  this  notion  of  a 
kingdom.  It  brings  together  all  kingdoms  as  one 
kingdom,  and  refers  the  power  and  the  glory  of 
them  all  to  the  divine  presence. 

The  scope  of  this  ascription  is  sufficiently  evi- 
dent; what  is  the  proof  of  it?  Wherein  is  this 
kingdom  visible,  and  ever  becoming  more  visible, 
in  the  structure  of  the  world?  How  amid  the  fail- 
ures, defeats,  and  defects  of  events  are  we  borne 
triumphantly  on  to  the  notion  of  a  kingdom,  ample 
in  power,  glorious  in  fulfillment,  radiating  in  all 
directions  the  divine  wisdom  and  love?  How  is  it 
that  having  just  offered  so  many,  and  as  yet  un- 
answered petitions,  we  sum  up  without  fear  and 
without  doubt,  For  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the 
power,  and  the  glory,  forever.  Amen? 

If  this  is  not  a  dream  but  a  fact  ever  growing 
plainer,  we  ought  to  be  able  to  see  it.  Why  do  we 
not  see  it?  A  great  difficulty  often  overtakes  us  in 
getting  from  the  seen  to  the  unseen,  from  the 
temporal  to  the  eternal,  from  familiar  things  and 
familiar  language  to  the  spiritual  intent  and  pur- 
pose of  them  all.  We  need  to  come  to  the  world, 
still  in  the  confusion  and  long  delay  of  passing  into 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  with  the  eye  of  an  archi- 
tect, at  once  gathering  up  the  bits  of  construction 
accomplished  into  the  plan  of  the  whole,  seeing  in 

8 


ii4  The  Lord's  Prayer 

the  chiseled  stone,  lying  here  and  there  among  the 
rough  material  and  accumulating  waste,  the  su- 
perb promise  of  a  finished  product.  We  should 
be  able  to  say  of  the  spiritual  world  as  the  archi- 
tect would  say  of  the  suggestive  work  before  him, 
This  is  magnificent,  once  completed  it  will  stand, 
a  great  fact  of  creation.  Thus  is  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  the  fulfillment  of  all  that  has  gone  before 
it.  What  a  long,  weary  path  the  world  has  trav- 
eled, yet  ever  rising  more  and  more  into  the  light, 
that  light  which  creates,  amplifies,  colors,  and 
reveals  the  kingdom  in  every  step  of  it,  a  single 
and  indivisible  process !  The  seed  has  germinated, 
but  neither  the  bud  nor  flower  nor  fruit  has  yet  ap- 
peared. We  wait  for  them  all,  yet  knowing  that 
the  miracle  of  life  is  with  us,  before  us,  and  will  give 
them  all  to  us.  The  kingdom  remains  to  be  fin- 
ished, and  furnished  forth  in  its  spiritual  elements ; 
yet  here  it  is,  with  us  every  day.  There  is  love 
in  the  world,  distinctively  divine  love,  though  there 
is  hatred  also.  There  is  concord  in  the  world,  a 
struggle  of  living  affinities,  though  it  reaches  as 
yet  only  a  few.  There  are  a  thousand  utilities, 
ten  thousand  enjoyments,  though  they  still  lie 
scattered  about,  often  lost,  often  turned  into  in- 
jury, never  as  yet  triumphant.  Looking  even  at 
men's  work  we  may  feel  as  felt  the  disciples  when 


The  Lord's  Prayer  115 

they  said  of  the  temple,  "What  great  stones  are 
these ! ' '  Men  have  done  many  magnificent  things, 
but  have  not  as  yet  been  able  to  secure  by  means 
of  them  the  plenty  and  the  peace  which  alone 
make  them  significant.  Our  work  transcends  the 
scope  of  our  expectations,  yet  these  expectations 
are  on  the  increase.  Let  the  world  once  become 
spiritual,  the  seat  of  universal  sympathy,  the 
means  of  constant  aid,  the  stretching  out  of  the 
divine  hand  and  the  stretching  forth  of  the  hands 
of  men  in  perpetual  receiving  and  giving,  and  we 
shall  see  and  feel  that  there  is  and  always  has 
been  but  one  comprehensive  purpose  in  the  world, 
making  all  things  sound,  physical  and  intellectual, 
individual  and  collective;  and  that  this  purpose  is 
the  spiritual  harmony  of  the  race,  by  which  they 
abide  together  as  the  sons  of  God.  What  short  of 
this  can  crown  the  world,  what  less  than  this  is 
prophesied  by  the  world?  What  other  dome  can 
cover  these  foundations  than  this  dome  of  the 
divine  wisdom  and  love?  The  delay  matters  not, 
nor  the  open  and  secret  conflicts;  these  are  the 
beginnings,  these  the  rubbish,  the  end  will  abolish 
them  all,  correct  them  all,  expound  them  all.  The 
kingdom  which  is  rising  from  beneath,  which  is 
descending  from  above  is  God's  kingdom,  the 
power  and  peace  of  a  living  thing  abiding  with  it. 


n6  The  Lord's  Prayer 

Thine  is  the  kingdom,  O  God,  and  we  enter  it  by 
these  open  doors  of  prayer  and  praise.  This  is 
the  path,  the  path  the  vulture's  eye  hath  not 
seen,  but  by  it  the  spirit  of  man  comes  at  length  to 
its  own. 

The  spiritual  kingdom  is  not  derived  from  the 
physical  kingdom.  They  are  parts  of  each  other, 
as  much  so  as  earth  and  air.  What  springs  up  in 
the  one  finds  expansion  and  proportion  in  the 
other.  The  chief  characteristic  of  the  spiritual 
life  is  that  it  extends,  interprets,  and  transforms 
our  sensuous  life.  Things  seen  become  at  once 
the  symbols  of  things  unseen.  The  animal  is 
immersed  in  a  universe  of  far-reaching  things,  but 
is  hardly  aware  of  it.  It  simply  concerns  itself  with 
what  makes  for  immediate  comfort  and  safety. 
It  does  not  break  over  the  narrow  circle  of  the 
senses  which  fence  in  its  own  feeding-ground. 
The  heavens  over  it,  things  remote  in  the  pres- 
ent, in  the  past,  and  in  the  future  remain  unheeded. 
The  universe  is  merely  a  wall  which  encloses  a 
simple  field  of  physical  comforts.  Not  thus  is  it 
with  man,  less  and  less  is  it  thus  with  man.  The 
greatness,  the  magnificence,  the  far-reaching  re- 
lations of  the  world,  all  challenge  his  attentions, 
all  furnish  motives  of  action.  It  is  not  simply  the 
ripples  that  gather  in  at  his  own  center  that  con- 


The  Lord's  Prayer  117 

cern  him,  but  the  waves,  little  and  large,  which 
come  dashing  in  from  all  quarters;  the  world's 
action.  These  astonish  him,  these  alarm  him, 
these  stimulate  and  guide  him.  This  lifting  of 
life  on  the  wing  into  the  upper  air,  this  gather- 
ing of  motives  from  all  quarters  and  all  distances, 
and  bringing  them  to  bear  on  the  thoughts,  feel- 
ings, purposes  of  our  daily  lives,  this  is  the  ulti- 
mate reason  of  the  world.  Here  is  a  kingdom,  not 
any  more  of  the  earth  merely,  but  of  earth  and 
heaven.  Its  forces  come  far  and  go  far.  It  sets 
us  in  action  upon  the  whole  universe,  and  the 
whole  universe  in  action  upon  us,  and  makes  us 
cogent  and  permanent  parts  of  it.  What  lies 
far  back  in  the  past,  far  out  in  the  present,  far  on 
in  the  future  concerns  us.  The  actions  and  re- 
actions of  eternity,  the  present  and  the  remote 
effects  of  conduct,  how  the  events  we  are  setting 
in  motion  will  issue,  all  concern  us;  are  the  waves 
which  are  at  play  under  our  keel.  Human  life 
thus  becomes,  with  a  stroke,  much  enlarged,  like 
all  life,  a  single  phase  in  a  continuous  process,  de- 
fined by  and  defining  all  the  products  of  time. 
Herein  is  an  immense  uplift,  an  immense  com- 
pression, an  immense  propulsion  of  motive,  and 
the  power  of  it  all  is  the  divine  kingdom.  Stim- 
ulating and  exacting  appetites  are  to  be  con- 


ii8  The  Lord's  Prayer 

strained,  not  for  extinction  but  for  construction; 
passions,  breaking  forth  as  a  flame  in  men's  lives, 
are  to  be  checked,  and  to  be  graded  down  until 
they  lie  as  harmonized  forces  at  the  center  of 
rational  effort;  desires  intense  in  our  own  nature, 
and  intensified  in  us  by  others  are  to  become  the 
regulated  impulses  which  carry  thrift,  enterprise, 
prosperity  through  all  the  world  for  the  world's 
sake,  and  which  pulsate  backward  and  forward  in 
the  social,  spiritual  atmosphere  with  the  rapidity 
and  discrimination  of  a  wireless  telegram,  until  we 
feel  that  we  are  inclosed  in  conditions  which  re- 
ceive, propagate,  and  enforce  our  hopes  as  if  they 
were  so  many  words  already  written  in  the  air. 
How  far  in  advance  of  the  spiritual  uses  to  which 
we  are  putting  them  are  the  physical  ministrations 
of  the  world !  Words  of  counsel  and  command  find 
at  once  a  waiting  ear  through  a  thousand  miles  of 
space,  while  words  of  consolation  and  affection 
perish  while  they  are  still  on  our  lips.  These 
innumerable  inventions  and  discoveries  by  which 
we  are  mastering  at  once  the  far  and  the  near,  and 
sending  human  aid  to  the  very  point  at  which  it  is 
called  for  are  after  all  only  the  possible  diffusion  of 
wisdom  and  love  which  God  has  placed  within  our 
reach.  What  might  not  love  do,  if  love  were  only 
ready  to  do  it. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  119 

This  power  does  not  drop  down  upon  us  from 
an  external  source,  is  not  the  power  of  armies  nor 
of  fleets  that  coerce  us,  a  coercion  that  is  far  more 
frequently  destruction  than  creation,  a  fury  that 
treads  down  almost  indifferently  the  good  and  the 
bad;  this  power  is  one  which  creates  and  creates 
only,  a  power  which,  working  within,  gathers 
together  and  harmonizes  all  forces,  inferior  and 
superior,  our  own  or  another's,  until  we  reach  a 
finished  product,  like  the  flower,  perfect  in  form, 
color,  fragrance,  its  secret  hidden  in  its  own  bosom. 
Utterly  unable  as  we  may  be  to  see  the  plant  in  the 
seed,  the  flower  in  the  bud,  who  ever  doubts  that 
seed  and  bud  hold  the  plant  and  flower,  and  are 
precious  because  of  them? 

How  little  matters  the  exact  stage  reached  in 
growth.  It  is  all  there,  past,  present,  and  future, 
until  the  thing  not  yet  conceived  by  us  overtakes 
us.  It  has  been  said  "He  who  models  nations 
according  to  his  own  image,  he  is  king. "  He  who 
pours  out  love  on  the  world,  a  pure,  compelling 
stream,  builds  it  into  love ;  his  is  the  kingdom  and 
the  power  and  the  glory  forever.  God's  love  lies 
centerwise  in  all  that  is  pure  and  good,  until  the 
whole  becomes  pure  and  good  in  every  part  of  it. 
How  comes  this  glory,  thine  is  the  kingdom  and 
the  power  and  the  glory  ?  Much  of  the  glory  among 


120  The  Lord's  Prayer 

men  is  thrust  upon  them  or  given  to  them  as  alien 
to  their  proper  selves,  or  is  something  won  from 
their  fellow-men  by  violence.  The  most  conspic- 
uous, and  perhaps  the  largest  half  of  glory  has 
been  military  glory ;  the  largest  half  of  honor,  mili- 
tary honor.  This,  honor !  It  is  as  often  as  other- 
wise antagonistic  to  it.  It  is  an  artificial  flower, 
snipped  into  form  or  splashed  into  color,  no  true 
flower  bursting  into  life  by  the  force  of  its  own 
being. 

We  are  afraid  of  this  word  glory,  so  filled  is  it, 
in  human  speech,  with  pride,  and  prudery,  and 
cruelty;  so  rarely  does  it  mean  irrepressible  good- 
ness, true  thought,  sound  purpose,  wide  affection, 
a  profound  response  to  the  wants  of  men.  In 
these  alone  is  glory,  the  glory  which  belongs  to 
God,  building  the  kingdom  of  love  in  the  world. 
This  is  glory,  his  glory,  whether  men  think  it  or 
not;  whether  it  escapes  their  vision  or  dazzles  it 
or  blesses  it.  This  is  the  glory  whose  very  recog- 
nition makes  the  beheld  and  the  beholder  stand 
up  together  in  one  and  the  same  light. 

Observe  the  Jacob's  ladder  by  which  in  a  spirit 
of  prayer  we  have  ascended:  first  a  kingdom;  its 
blessings  reaching  to  all,  blessings  in  the  heart,  in 
the  household,  in  the  community,  in  the  nation,  in 
the  family  of  nations ;  blessings  for  all  the  plans  and 


The  Lord's  Prayer  121 

purposes  of  men  by  which  they  climb  out  of  chaos 
into  creation,  into  divine  love  and  divine  gifts. 
This  is  indeed  evolution,  comprehensive,  complete, 
true  evolution,  by  which  the  divine  wisdom  and 
will  unroll  themselves  until  all  see  them  and  all  are 
blessed  in  the  vision.  Out  of  this  inner  power,  out 
of  work  done,  springs  the  glory;  not  as  an  art- 
gallery  in  the  night  wakes  up  under  gaslight,  and, 
this  failing,  sinks  back  at  once  into  darkness,  but 
as  the  sun,  sending  its  harbingers  before  it,  itself 
bursts  the  horizon  and  pours  out  light  and  heat 
and  creative  energy  over  all  the  land.  With 
this  glory  everywhere  about  us,  we  pass  inevitably 
into  forever,  a  forever  in  which  effort  and  hope, 
expectation  and  fulfillment  move  forward  to- 
gether, henceforth  indivisible.  So  standing,  so 
feeling,  our  whole  life  utters  itself  in  one  word, 
Amen.  As  all  things  have  come  into  the  light, 
let  them  abide  in  that  light.  How  otherwise 
than  thus  could  we  have  ascended  up  through 
the  Lord's  Prayer,  through  the  kingdom,  by  the 
power,  into  the  glory  which  in  our  reconciled 
hearts  abides  forever? 

Note  the  courage  which  takes  possession  of  the 
mind,  as  by  its  own  insight  it  comes  into  the  light. 
It  justifies  itself  to  itself,  and  waits  on  no  man's 
concession.  Its  amen  is  its  own  full  assent. 


122  The  Lord's  Prayer 

When  the  mind,  the  mathematical  mind,  sees  the 
line  of  proof  before  it,  with  what  confidence,  with 
what  neglect  of  criticism,  does  it  rush  to  the  goal. 
It  sees  and  knows,  knows  because  it  sees.  The 
soul  in  which  genius  lodges,  when  it  is  struck 
through  with  the  light  of  consciousness,  becomes  at 
once  aware  of  the  scope  and  power  of  its  own 
vision.  How  indifferent  it  is  to  fault-finding,  how 
certain  that  that  which  it  feels  gives  law  to  feel- 
ing, is  itself  life.  The  deepest  conviction  and  the 
strongest  satisfaction  are  inseparable,  and  to- 
gether sweep  all  doubt  before  them.  The  mind, 
ascending  by  these  steps  of  insight  and  sentiment, 
is  sure  that  it  is  drawing  near  to  God,  near  to  the 
heart  of  the  world,  and,  by  its  own  life,  is  taking 
possession  of  the  world. 

Mark  also  the  helpfulness  of  this  conclusion  of 
prayer.  The  more  the  persons,  the  greater  the 
concord  of  voices,  the  more  profound  and  acqui- 
escent is  the  amen  which  embraces  all.  If  one  can 
say  amen,  much  more  a  score;  if  a  score,  much 
more  all  the  millions  of  men,  until  human  hearts 
gain  in  it  articulation,  cosmic  utterance,  the  break- 
ing of  ten  thousand  waves  on  the  same  shore. 

Once  again  observe  the  repose,  throbbing  with 
action,  the  poised  attitude,  backward  and  for- 
ward, with  which  we  rest  on  the  last  word,  amen. 


The  Lord's  Prayer  123 

Nothing  more  would  we  have,  nothing  less  shall 
suffice  us.  We  all,  with  one  mind,  each  for  him- 
self and  each  for  others,  say  Amen,  let  this  thing 
be.  God's  rest,  man's  rest,  the  rest  of  the  thoughts, 
the  rest  of  the  feelings,  the  rest  of  our  activities 
in  the  glory  of  the  world,  in  our  own  glory,  in  the 
glory  of  God,  become  the  fullness  of  every  im- 
pulse in  its  last,  highest  expression.  This  is  why 
we  pray,  this  is  for  what  we  pray,  this  is  the 
answer  of  prayer.  For  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and 
the  power,  and  the  glory,  forever.  Amen. 


ADDRESS  TO  ASSOCIATION  OF 
MINISTERS 

GARDINER,  ME. 

HPHERE  is  a  feeling  that  we  have  reached  a 
critical  period  in  religious  faith;  that  there 
are  influences  steadily  undermining  it  which 
threaten  its  overthrow.  While  there  is  some 
truth  in  this  sentiment,  there  is  also  much  assump- 
tion and  exaggeration.  Those  who  entertain 
it  imagine  that  the  direction  of  the  world  is  much 
more  at  their  disposal  than  it  really  is.  The  last 
thought  of  the  last  philosopher,  or  the  latest 
theory  of  the  latest  scientists,  has  about  as  much 
to  do  with  the  final  issue  of  events  as  a  single  leaf 
on  a  magnificent  tree  has  to  do  with  its  fortunes. 
The  tree  has  encountered  the  frost,  borne  the 
snows,  and  met  the  whirlwinds  of  many  seasons, 
and  come  out  of  them  all  unscathed.  It  will  not 
now  perish  because  a  few  leaves  have  withered. 
The  facts  of  religion  pertain  to  the  lives  of  the 
masses  of  men.  There  they  remain,  not  un- 

124 


Association  of  Ministers          125 

changeable,  but  invincible.  They  spring  out  of 
the  fears  and  hopes,  the  labors  and  burdens  of 
life,  and  thence  they  will  grow  as  long  as  these 
experiences  remain.  We  have  to  deal  not  with  the 
speculations  of  speculative  minds,  but  with  the 
thoughts  of  practical  men,  tossed  about  and  beat 
upon  by  their  own  griefs  and  discouragements,  and 
by  the  wrongs  of  their  fellow-men.  Religion 
springs  up,  like  seed  in  the  soil,  between  darkness 
and  light,  and,  like  seed,  will  germinate  as  long  as 
earth  and  air  minister  to  it.  There  is  a  cold 
effrontery  in  hasty  denial  which  men,  searching  for 
a  hand  of  love  to  which  they  can  cling  and  by 
which  they  can  be  lifted,  will  not  heed.  Speculate 
by  all  means,  but  remember  that  the  world  no 
more  moves  in  obedience  to  speculation  alone 
than  the  seasons  come  and  go  by  the  northern 
lights.  The  wide-open  and  perfumed  blossom  of 
the  magnolia  cannot  say  I  crown  the  topmost 
branch,  when  I  wither  the  tree  dies  with  me.  No 
indeed,  large  and  beautiful  and  fragrant  flowers 
are  still  due  in  the  years  to  come.  As  the  tree  is  a 
greater  fact  than  any  one  of  its  blossoms,  so  the 
experiences  of  men  are  of  more  moment  than  any 
one  product  of  thought.  The  fertility  of  the  hu- 
man mind  in  spiritual  conceptions  remains  inex- 
haustible. We  have  faith  in  the  spiritual  facts  of 


126          Association  of  Ministers 

the  world,  the  facts  which  give  value  to  all  other 
facts.  What  patient  love,  what  heroic  consecra- 
tion, what  abiding  courage,  what  faith  in  things 
unseen  have  come  to  men;  now,  as  a  conspicuous 
illumination ;  now,  as  a  daily  consolation.  As  long 
as  we  attach  importance  to  human  history,  and 
feel  that  here  lie  the  great  events  of  the  world,  so 
long  we  shall  not  be  disheartened  by  any  attack 
on  the  principles  which  have  made  and  are  mak- 
ing man's  life  illustrious.  We  stand  with  those 
potent  impulses  which  have  wrought  at  least  a 
partial  redemption  among  men. 

While,  then,  we  do  not  believe  that  the  scepti- 
cism of  our  time  has  brought  any  shock  of  disso- 
lution to  the  spiritual  world,  we  yet  recognize  the 
fact  that  the  day  is  changing,  and  that  the  stress  of 
duty  is  not  the  same  that  it  was  yesterday.  Our 
time  is  critical,  but  critical  times  are  good  times. 
They  indicate  that  new  influences  are  setting  in, 
and  that  if  we  take  this  tide  at  the  flood  it  will 
lead  us  on  to  fortune. 

What  is  the  nature  of  this  alleged  crisis?  It  is 
simply  an  injunction  to  go  forward;  one  more 
illustration  of  what  we  should  have  known  always, 
that  our  lives  are  to  be  advanced  and  perfected  by 
a  wide  experience  in  a  world  administered  for  this 
very  end  of  growth.  Of  all  things  religious  life 


Association  of  Ministers          127 

must  be  the  most  progressive.  It  means  the 
fullness  of  knowledge,  the  completion  of  powers, 
the  harmony  of  pleasures;  all  impulses  in  all  kept 
in  a  state  of  tension  and  reconciliation.  God 
chasteneth  every  son  whom  he  receiveth.  More 
patience,  more  power  are  the  divine  idea.  Men 
love  better  to  regard  themselves  as  already  in  the 
promised  land. 

Our  time  offers  victories  which  must  be  won  at 
once  or  the  issue  will  be  disastrous  defeat.  This 
is  our  crisis,  much  to  be  done,  much  to  be  feared, 
much  to  be  gained;  the  redemption  of  a  great 
opportunity  which  has  overtaken  us. 

Men  are  united  in  churches  by  creeds,  rituals, 
actions.  The  bond  with  which  we  are  most  fa- 
miliar is  a  creed.  While  creeds  have  their  service, 
they  do  not  and  cannot  give  expression  to  the 
power  and  the  unity  of  a  spiritual  life.  They  are 
only  a  part  of  that  life,  and,  if  separated  from  the 
remaining  portion,  are  a  barren  part.  Churches 
have  sought  for  some  form  of  infallibility,  and,  in 
the  measure  in  which  they  seem  to  have  attained 
it,  they  have  become  formal  and  dead.  Infalli- 
bility means  a  bench  by  the  wayside,  on  which 
men  rest  in  their  heavenly  journey  and  at  length 
drop  to  sleep.  Our  infallibility  has  been  associ- 
ated with  the  Scriptures,  and  whatever  this  infalli- 


128          Association  of  Ministers 

bility  may  be  it  cannot  avail  us.  The  moment  we 
begin  to  search  the  Scriptures  and  to  expound 
them,  that  moment  our  fallible  powers  disclose 
themselves.  What  we  affirm  to  be  unmistakable 
truth  is  our  conviction  of  truth,  colored  by  our  own 
minds.  Nor  have  we  the  slightest  occasion  to 
regret  that  truth  is  won  for  us  by  our  own  activity, 
any  more  than  that  food  gets  its  relish  and  service 
in  our  own  mouths  and  by  our  own  digestion. 
Most  dogmatism  is  an  apology  for  indolence. 

Next  best  to  knowing  the  truth  is  a  distinct 
recognition  that  we  do  not  know  it.  It  is  this 
sense  of  ignorance  that  quickens  inquiry.  "I 
count  not  myself  to  have  apprehended,"  says  the 
apostle,  "but  this  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  those 
things  which  are  behind  and  reaching  forth  unto 
those  which  are  before,  I  press  toward  the  mark  for 
the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus."  Man's  life  is  swallowed  up  in  effort.  It 
is  the  joy  of  a  prolonged  search;  a  passage  from 
life  into  life.  Take  the  most  simple  and  intelli- 
gible truths,  the  two  commands  of  love;  or  the 
simpler  of  the  two,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bor as  thyself."  It  is  like  the  sea,  it  has  many 
measurements  and  many  places  in  which  the 
plummet  has  not  reached  bottom.  These  plain 
words  remain  to  be  filled  with  meaning  by  a  life- 


Association  of  Ministers          129 

long  experience;  by  an  inquisitive  and  diligent 
search,  which  knows  no  weariness.  We  learn 
in  our  daily  action  what  love  is,  what  it  can 
do,  what  it  cannot  do,  the  growing  skill  and 
consideration  and  concession  it  involves.  To 
make  a  creed  of  this  command  may  be  to  kill  it; 
to  make  a  life  of  it  is  to  understand  it.  If  any 
man  will  do  his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  doctrine. 
Light  is  struck  out  in  the  spiritual  world  as  in  the 
electric  current,  by  the  difficulties  which  love  meets 
with  in  circulation.  This  is  what  makes  our  day 
a  critical  one,  there  are  so  many  who  tell  us  that 
our  doctrines  are  dead,  that  our  precepts  have 
ceased  to  lay  hold  of  the  conscience,  that  men  are 
eating  and  drinking  unmindful  of  any  catastrophe. 
If  we  are  put  severely  to  the  test,  "By  their  fruits 
ye  shall  know  them,"  the  verdict  becomes  one  of 
hesitancy  and  doubt.  We  bring  forth  our  treas- 
ures under  the  form  of  a  creed,  and  men  make  a 
mock  of  them. 

Nor  is  any  religious  ritual  more  satisfactory. 
There  has  been  a  manifest  disposition  in  our 
churches  to  strengthen  our  worship,  as  in  itself  too 
cold  and  colorless,  by  a  simple  ritual.  Our  forms 
have  wearied  us,  have  lost  flavor,  and  we  have  been 
willing,  if  possible,  to  make  them  a  little  more 
appetizing.  We  never  can  give  our  worship  the 


130          Association  of  Ministers 

quality  of  worship  in  a  ritualistic  church,  like  the 
Catholic,  whose  methods  have  been  the  slow  de- 
posit of  ages.  We  have  neither  the  disposition 
nor  the  patience  to  build  up  a  highway  of  observ- 
ances, by  means  of  which  those  who  march  along 
it  are  projected,  at  least  in  the  eyes  of  those 
standing  far  off  beneath  them,  into  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  Not  a  few  are  casting  about  for  some 
adequate  bond  by  which  all  Christians  may  be 
marshaled  into  one  body,  and  make  a  new  and 
more  imposing  impression  on  the  world.  The 
creed,  in  itself  so  divisible  and  so  dividing,  is  to  be 
reduced  to  its  smallest  terms ;  church  ordinances  are 
to  be  established  which  will  give  a  conspicuous  path 
heavenward.  The  eye  is  to  be  satisfied,  all  good 
men  marching  one  way  with  the  same  confessions 
and  the  same  songs  on  their  lips.  How  futile !  how 
utterly  outside  of  the  divine  mind!  We  need 
unity,  but  not  the  unity  of  a  tub  whose  hoops  have 
been  newly  driven,  but  rather  the  unity  of  a  tree, 
whose  fibres  lie  straight,  or  twisted  and  tied,  as  the 
strength  of  the  tree  requires;  so  twisted  and  tied 
that  no  burden  can  break  them  or  wind  fret  them 
apart.  Churches  are  not  to  be  framed  together, 
they  must  grow  together  in  a  divine  union  from 
their  first  putting  forth.  A  church  can  no  more  be 
made  than  a  State  can  be  made.  This  is  the  error 


Association  of  Ministers          131 

of  socialism.  The  socialist  imagines  that  men, 
once  united  in  helpful  relation,  will  remain  together 
in  a  manifest  fellowship  of  purpose.  The  fellowship 
of  purpose  must  come  before  that  of  structure,  and 
so  rule  it.  The  egg,  the  germ  of  a  living  thing, 
seems  simple.  It  is  capable  of  analysis,  and  all 
its  ingredients  are  readily  found;  but  no  man  can 
put  them  together  and  make  an  egg.  His  nearest 
approach  to  it  is  one  of  chalk  offered  as  a  hint  to  a 
hen.  The  unintelligent  fowl  frames  the  living 
thing  under  the  divine  idea.  Here  is  our  way  out 
of  the  religious  crisis  that  has  come  to  us.  Our 
escape  is  through  a  new  form  of  growth.  We 
must  cease  to  rely  on  a  creed,  no  matter  how  care- 
fully shaped.  We  are  not  to  frame  a  ritual  which 
defines  the  lines  of  actions  we  agree  to  call  re- 
ligious. We  are  to  go  forward  under  the  divine 
providence  which  has  come  to  us,  to  perform,  as 
best  we  can,  those  duties  which  are  marked  out 
for  us,  and  which  constitute  our  immediate  service. 
It  is  our  purposes  and  our  activity  under  these 
duties  which  need  to  be  reshaped.  Our  thoughts 
and  feelings  will  take  on  new  character  under  this 
fresh  form  of  service,  and,  before  we  are  aware, 
we  shall  be  united  and  strengthened  according  to 
the  divine  mind.  This  is  sound  sense,  sound  philo- 
sophy, sound  religion.  It  is  experience  illuminated 


132          Association  of  Ministers 

by  ideas,  and  ideas  corrected  and  guided  by  ex- 
perience. God  hands  us  over  to  the  world,  hands 
us  over  to  our  immediate  duties,  and  instructs  and 
disciplines  us  in  the  progress  of  events.  Ideas  are 
good  things,  a  theory  of  the  world  is  always  in 
order,  but  the  ideas  must  be  practical  ideas,  and 
the  theory  must  have  a  sound  ring  when  struck 
like  a  car  wheel  with  a  hammer.  Our  thoughts 
concerning  the  world  must  be  the  spiritual  counter- 
parts of  the  world,  as  it  passes  before  us  day  by 
day.  It  is  the  world  made  by  God  and  moving 
on  under  his  hand  that  tries  and  tests  all  our 
schemes  of  salvation.  Scripture  interpretation, 
revelation,  must  resolve  themselves  into  conduct 
and  character,  into  the  framework  of  the  state 
and  society,  into  a  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  shaped 
where  men  are  growing  rich  and  growing  poor, 
and  where  the  good  and  the  evil  are  thrown  promis- 
cuously together.  The  real  question,  the  question 
which  it  is  salvation  to  put  and  to  answer,  is  How 
can  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  come  through  all  and 
for  all. 

We  have  some  notion  of  how  this  inquiry  should 
be  answered,  but  by  no  means  a  complete  notion. 
Begin  to  work  out  this  idea,  be  diligent  in  each 
day's  labor,  and  the  kingdom  will  more  and  more 
rise  before  the  mind,  a  heavenly  vision,  fitted  to 


Association  of  Ministers          133 

guide  our  thoughts,  to  encourage  our  hearts,  and 
to  bind  us  to  the  good  and  great  everywhere. 

We  hear  much  of  inquiry,  observation,  induc- 
tion, also  of  insight,  of  revelation,  of  entering  by  de- 
duction into  the  mind  of  God.  Indeed  all  knowl- 
edge is  born  in  this  copulation  of  things  and  ideas, 
the  world  and  ithe  plan  of  the  world  which  has 
brooded  above  it  so  many  centuries  as  the  creative 
spirit.  This  union  is  precisely  what  we  are  urging, 
is  the  step  to  which  God  is  impelling  us  as  the  next 
stride  heavenward.  We  are  to  take  possession 
with'  God  of  the  world  as  evermore  his  own ;  we  are 
to  bring  it  under  those  impulses  and  laws  which 
constitute  and  disclose  its  divine  character.  So 
shall  we  learn  to  see,  to  feel,  and  to  share  the  sal- 
vation of  the  world.  Artificers  of  the  kingdom,  we 
shall  know  what  the  kingdom  means,  and  be  ready 
to  enter  into  its  pleasures. 

Our  religious  life  must  rest,  in  the  first  place,  on 
the  conviction  that  divine  wisdom  and  love  lie  at 
the  center  of  the  world,  and,  in  the  second  place, 
that  from  this  center  they  are  going  forth  to  take 
possession  of  the  world,  and,  in  the  third  place, 
that  those  who  labor  for  this  consummation  will 
thereby  enter  into  it  and  share  it.  We  grow  into 
the  kingdom  as  we  frame  the  kingdom.  God 
does  not  make  the  kingdom  and  then  lift  us  into 


134          Association  of  Ministers 

it,  as  the  angel  of  the  Lord  is  said  to  have  raised 
the  prophet  Habakkuk  by  the  hair  of  his  head. 
He  and  we  shape  the  kingdom,  and  so  share  its 
spirit.  The  kingdom  is  at  once  within  us  and 
without  us.  Our  struggle  for  an  external  reve- 
lation makes  clear  and  open  the  inner  vision. 
This  is  the  history  of  all  high  art,  and  of  the  highest 
art  of  all,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

The  spiritual  man  differs  from  every  other  man 
in  feeling  that  wisdom  and  love  have  made  the 
world,  and  are  more  than  ever  busy  with  this 
work.  This  revelation  comes  piecemeal,  and 
takes  possession  of  us  as  the  fruit  of  a  large  ex- 
perience. The  two  great  commands,  the  love 
of  God  and  the  love  of  man,  are  conjoined  be- 
cause they  cannot  exist  or  be  understood  apart. 
These  two  feelings  are  planted  together  in  mutual 
action  and  reaction.  It  is  not  obvious  that  God 
is  love,  that  a  loving  hand  has  framed  and  guides 
the  world.  It  is  easy  to  believe  the  opposite. 
The  love  of  God  is  so  comprehensive,  takes  such 
wide  circuits,  so  holds  us  back  from  premature 
and  raw  pleasure,  is  so  patient  in  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  good  that  men  easily  become  impatient  of 
it,  and  angrily  deny  its  existence.  How  does  this 
ruling  idea  and  central  revelation  come  to  us? 
Chiefly  in  connection  with  an  earnest  purpose  to 


Association  of  Ministers          135 

make  the  world,  in  all  its  parts,  what  it  ought  to 
be.  Cherish  love,  learn  the  lessons  of  love,  come 
to  feel  how  much  it  contains  and  how  slowly  it  is 
realized,  and,  point  by  point,  the  mind  of  God 
opens  upon  us.  We  understand  the  process  of 
spiritual  growth,  its  wholesome  severity,  its  mani- 
fold corrections,  and  are  led  to  feel  that  these  seeds 
of  eternal  life  must  be  made  strong  and  vital,  and 
all  development  proceed  under  them. 

Take  this  one  fact,  which  may  seem  a  strange 
fact,  that  those  who  are  most  sensitive  to  human 
love  and  most  painstaking  in  making  it  widely  felt 
are  those  who  most  fully  believe  in  the  love 
of  God  and  are  least  garrulous  concerning  it. 
Is  not  this  the  best  possible  proof  that  the  world  is 
spiritual,  and  everywhere  pervaded  by  love? 
Love  begins  to  understand  the  world,  and  more 
and  more  to  rejoice  in  it.  If  this  is  not  the  very 
nature  of  the  world,  we  shall  never  be  able  to 
plant  love  in  it  successfully.  Heaven  will  forever 
remain  alien  to  a  world  of  strife,  bitterness,  and 
cruelty. 

This  conviction  must  be  born  and  must  grow  up 
in  the  world  of  action;  so  God  would  lead  us  that, 
standing  under  the  open  heavens,  our  life  strong 
within  us  by  virtue  of  effort,  our  hearts  warmed 
by  pursuit,  we  may  be  able  to  feel  that  God  is  love, 


136          Association  of  Ministers 

that  a  kingdom  of  love  is  normal  to  the  world, 
and  that  as  it  comes  it  will  shape  events  to  itself  as 
readily  as  the  sun  of  spring  unfolds  the  flower; 
the  same  sun  that  disperses  the  dead  thing  in  decay 
opens  a  living  thing  in  the  full  circuit  of  its 
powers. 

This  notion  of  divine  love,  established  and 
strengthened  in  experience,  is  so  constructive  in  its 
nature,  so  adequate  for  its  work  as  to  make  sure 
of  its  fulfillment  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  If 
there  is  to  be  any  harmony  among  men;  any  life 
proportioned  to  the  grandeur  of  their  powers ;  any 
true  and  adequate  possession  of  the  world;  any 
completion  of  development,  it  must  be  found  in 
that  living  temper  already  kindled  in  the  human 
heart,  and  waiting  to  be  nourished  by  all  truth. 
This  evolution  crowns  and  completes  all  evolution. 
This  is  the  doctrine  of  evolution  recited  from  be- 
ginning to  end.  Personal  life,  family  life,  social 
life,  national  4ife  wait  on  wisdom  and  good-will. 
Strife,  dissension,  division  rest  on  ignorance, 
narrowness,  and  ill-will.  To  deny  the  world  love 
is  to  condemn  it  to  sterility  and  death.  All  that 
ails  society  is  its  stupidity,  its  brutality,  its  insensi- 
bility; the  assumption  that  more  can  be  done  for 
human  happiness  by  a  hard  fist  and  a  grasping 
hand  than  by  a  tender  and  sympathetic  heart. 


Association  of  Ministers  137 

Divine  love  is  not  yet  accepted,  but  is  coming  to 
be  accepted  as  the  key  of  life. 

Our  Christian  creeds  have  never  given  the  true 
position  to  ethical  principles.  They  have  even,  at 
times,  begotten  a  certain  contempt  of  what  has 
been  termed  mere  morality,  as  if  it  were  some  false 
way  of  climbing  into  heaven.  Yet  the  moral  law 
is  the  law  planted  in  the  hearts  of  men,  which  they 
ever  more  and  more  have  occasion  to  expand.  It 
is  the  law  which  guides  love,  and  through  which 
love  feeds  all  the  streams  of  pleasure.  As  one's 
right  arm  in  service  throbs  with  the  blood-energy 
and  nerve-energy  which  flow  through  it,  so  obedi- 
ence to  the  ethical  law  of  our  spiritual  life  means 
the  highest  fulfillment  of  all  pure  and  joyful  im- 
pulses. This  transition  now  urged  makes  our 
faith  realistic. 

It  is  strange  how  timid  we  have  been  in  the  de- 
fense of  truth,  and  chiefly  because  the  truth  of  our 
creeds  has  been  so  remotely  and  artificially  con- 
ceived. The  narrative  of  Genesis  has  occasioned 
us  much  trouble,  and  led  to  an  ignominious  retreat. 
There  is  in  it,  rightly  conceived,  no  embarrass- 
ment of  faith,  but  an  occasion  of  a  fresh  revelation. 
When  the  scientist  came  with  his  facts,  we,  trained 
in  speculation,  knew  not  how  to  meet  him.  He 
discussed  the  making  of  the  world,  and  we  were 


138          Association  of  Ministers 

discussing  the  formation  of  the  Trinity.  Our 
weapons,  on  either  side,  missed  each  other  in  the 
darkness,  or,  meeting,  theory  was  shivered  into 
fragments  against  stubborn  facts. 

Why  have  we  not  dealt  with  facts?  We  have 
as  many  facts,  facts  as  pertinent  and  significant 
as  those  of  the  physical  world.  Historic  facts, 
personal  and  social  facts,  are,  rightly  urged,  as 
undeniable  and  invincible  as  those  of  the  material 
world.  What  we  see  with  mental  vision  is  as 
much  a  part  of  our  experience  as  what  we  see  with 
our  eyes.  If  we  take  our  stand  by  human  hopes 
and  attainments,  our  position  is  as  impregnable  as 
that  of  science,  and  overtops  it.  We  have  occa- 
sion to  rejoice  in  scientific  facts,  but  when  the 
scientist  sets  up  as  a  philosopher,  and  makes  the 
physical  world  the  image  of  all  worlds,  he  has  as 
many  glass  windows,  and  windows  as  easily  stoned 
as  the  most  defenseless  of  us.  When  we  affirm 
that  love  is  the  law  of  human  life,  the  affirmation 
so  touches  every  man's  experience  as  hardly  to 
call  for  proof ;  or,  if  proof  is  still  sought  for,  history 
crowds  in  with  its  facts  like  a  marching  army. 

This  transition  from  creed  and  ritual  to  action 
ordered  by  good- will  is  also  redemptive.  Each 
man  who  makes  it,  in  the  measure  in  which  he 
makes  it,  passes  into  the  divine  love,  penitent, 


Association  of  Ministers          139 

faithful,  obedient,  instructed,  trained.  How  many 
men  have  been  softened  and  made  wise  by  a  theory 
of  the  atonement,  thought  out  and  defended? 
How  many  hearts  have  been  softened  and  made 
wise  by  an  effort  to  make  the  divine  love  in  some 
new  way  effective  in  the  world?  Love  is  never 
entertained  without  becoming  at  once  redemptive. 
This  transition  is  also  Christlike.  Christ  dealt 
very  little  with  doctrine,  he  dealt  constantly  with 
conduct.  He  left  the  just  impulse  to  draw  after  it 
the  just  conception.  He  gave  the  two  command- 
ments their  true  relation  and  position.  On  them, 
said  he,  hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets. 
Life  and  the  prophecy  of  life  are  in  them 
alone. 

"I  am  among  you  as  he  that  serveth. "  "By  your 
fruits  shall  ye  be  known."  "Then  shall  the  right- 
eous answer  him,  saying,  Lord,  when  saw  we  thee  an- 
hungred,  and  fed  thee?  or  thirsty,  and  gave  thee 
drink?  When  saw  we  thee  a  stranger,  and  took  thee 
in?  or  naked,  and  clothed  thee?  Or  when  saw  we  thee, 
sick  or  in  prison,  and  came  unto  thee?  And  the  King 
shall  answer  and  say  unto  them,  Verily  I  say  unto 
you,  inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  one  of  the  least 
of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me. " 

We  have  been  so  occupied  with  speculation  that 
we  have  had  little  time  left  in  which  to  obey.     The 


140          Association  of  Ministers 

present  crisis  of  our  faith  is  to  force  us  from  the 
theory  of  godliness  into  the  practice  of  godliness, 
from  the  form  of  godliness  into  the  power  of  it. 
The  light  of  our  creeds  has  been  like  the  light  of  a 
trolley  car ;  it  burns  brightest  when  there  is  no  force 
spent  in  motion. 

Before  we  turn  to  the  practical  uses  of  the  truth 
we  have  considered,  let  us  sketch  the  path  we  have 
traveled.  There  is  a  religious  crisis,  caused  by 
the  remote  and  speculative  character  of  our  creeds, 
and  the  undue  importance  attached  to  our  rituals. 
This  crisis  is  to  be  relieved  and  is  to  pass  away 
by  accepting  current  spiritual  facts,  as  they  press 
upon  our  attention  in  the  world  about  us,  and  by 
adapting  our  action  to  them.  We  are  to  share  the 
empirical  development  of  our  time,  and  to  insti- 
tute a  search  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  We 
thus  enter  on  a  deeper  and  more  immediate  knowl- 
edge of  the  world,  and  the  divine  idea  contained 
in  it.  Our  faith  becomes  realistic,  as  science  is 
realistic.  It  becomes  redemptive  and  cannot  be 
pushed  aside  because  it  is  redemptive.  It  accepts 
the  spirit  of  Christ  and  so  remains  Christian. 

No  time  and  no  country  ever  had  more  abun- 
dant practical  and  fruitful  social  problems  before 
it  than  our  time  and  our  country.  No  time  and 
country  ever  had  more  need  of  the  gospel  of 


Association  of  Ministers          141 

Christ,  or  could  find  in  it  more  revelation  than  our 
time  and  our  country. 

It  remains  only  to  hint  at  a  few  of  these 
problems.  The  State  of  Maine  stands  as  a  pro- 
hibitory State.  You  have  doubtless  been  much 
perplexed  and  divided  over  this  question.  Yet, 
what  other  temper  can  be  trusted  with  the  settle- 
ment of  the  problem  than  the  Christian  temper? 
Prohibitionists  seem  to  me  at  times  to  take  un- 
tenable ground,  and  to  have  less  sympathy  and 
patience  than  belong  to  them.  Yet  look  where 
I  will,  the  community  which  forbids  the  sale  of 
intoxicating  drinks  seems  to  occupy  higher  ground 
than  one  which  allows  it.  There  is  a  deeper  sense 
of  social  obligation  in  prohibition  than  in  license. 
Yet  is  it  not  true  that  we  cannot  stand  on  high 
moral  ground  without  a  high  moral  temper;  that 
we  must  gird  ourselves  the  more  tightly  the  greater 
the  work  we  have  in  hand?  The  disposition  to 
overcome  evil  with  good  must  be  a  little  more 
vital  in  Maine  than  in  Massachusetts.  Every 
man  for  himself  reads  license,  every  man  for  his 
neighbor  reads  prohibition.  The  conflict  be- 
tween these  two  tendencies  is  always  far-reaching 
and  obscure.  Upon  Maine  is  laid  the  immedi- 
ate service  of  showing  that  prohibition,  however 
harsh  it  may  seem,  may  yet  stand  for  so  much 


142          Association  of  Ministers 

good- will,  such  watchfulness  of  the  strong  over  the 
weak  as  to  make  of  it  an  exalted  expression  of  our 
common  life. 

A  question  which  is  destined  to  be  a  weary  one 
in  the  handling  and  one  which  nothing  but  a 
Christian  temper,  instructed  in  many  ways,  can 
settle,  is  that  which  lies  between  workmen  and 
their  employers.  The  present  position  of  the 
working  classes  is  one  that  involves  hardship  and 
discouragement;  less  with  us  than  elsewhere,  yet 
even  with  us  open  to  much  bitterness.  This  rela- 
tion has  arisen  under  obscure  causes,  with  which 
both  the  faults  of  men  and  the  selfishness  of  men 
have  had  much  to  do.  It  has  been  the  product  of 
composite  terms  among  which  ignorance,  in- 
dolence, and  vice  have  played  a  part  on  the  one 
side,  and,  on  the  other,  forgetfulness,  selfishness, 
and  brutality.  It  is  not  an  easy  task  for  any 
Christian,  immersed  to  the  lips  in  custom  and  con- 
ventional sentiment,  to  understand  the  claims  of 
the  labor-movement,  and  to  bring  to  it  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  If  you  wish  to  make  proof  of  your  Christi- 
anity, here  is  an  opportunity.  What  correction  of 
opinion,  what  sacrifice  of  interest,  what  charity 
toward  mistakes  are  you  prepared  to  enter  on,  in 
order  that  the  masses  of  men  may  frame  for  them- 
selves a  life  of  more  impulse  and  more  opportunity, 


Association  of  Ministers          143 

a  life  more  commensurate  with  your  own  lives  and 
with  the  love  of  God? 

The  workmen  feel,  and  not  without  reason,  that 
the  Church  is  often  opposed  to  them  and  is  always 
unsympathetic.  Yet  it  is  the  office  of  the  Church 
to  furnish  that  vital  heat  which  maintains  growth 
in  society.  The  customs  of  society  are  adverse 
to  labor.  It  presses  down  the  rewards  of  labor 
and  makes  light  of  its  hopes.  The  burdens  of 
inability  and  poverty  lie  heaped  up  in  the  path  of 
labor,  and  few  are  willing  to  aid  in  their  removal. 
It  is  the  business  of  the  Christian  to  nourish  a 
progressive  temper.  Things  as  they  are,  are  not 
to  him  the  rule  of  life.  While  he  holds  fast  that 
which  is  good,  he  is  to  make  it  a  means  to  that 
which  is  still  better.  It  is  his  commission  to  unite 
a  wise  radicalism  to  a  wise  conservatism.  The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  will  not  come  by  holding  fast 
that  which  we  have.  We  have  occasion  to  un- 
tangle the  snarled  skein  of  life,  to  lay  straight  its 
twisted  threads,  and  to  bring  them  more  perfectly 
under  the  law  of  order  and  service.  This  is  a 
delicate  task,  and  because  it  is  a  delicate  task  it 
falls  to  those  who  are  striving  to  furnish  the  wis- 
dom and  good- will  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

An  equally  pressing  claim,  the  counterpart  of  the 
one  now  urged,  is  a  correction  of  the  unrighteous 


144          Association  of  Ministers 

methods  by  which  we  are  pursuing  wealth.  It  is 
a  temper  which  pervades  society.  We  seem  to 
think  that  if  money  is  being  made  we  are  nationally 
prosperous.  We  forget  that  a  just  and  kindly 
distribution  of  wealth  is  of  more  moment  than  its 
acquisition.  The  heaping  up  of  wealth  in  the 
hands  of  |a  few  may  be  but  little  better  than 
robbery.  The  rain,  which  should  fall  in  gentle 
showers  all  through  the  land,  pours  out  of  the  torn 
clouds  as  a  torrent. 

The  career  of  John  D.  Rockefeller  draws  atten- 
tion because  it  expresses,  in  its  most  intense  form, 
a  temper  that  is  coming  to  rule  the  commercial 
world.  He  has  turned  business  into  unceasing 
and  unflinching  warfare,  a  securing  of  prosperity 
not  only  without  reference  to  others  but  with  con- 
stant cunning  exercised  toward  them,  and  secret 
depredations  made  upon  them.  He  has  done 
this  with  an  open  profession  of  Christian  faith. 
If  these  two  things  are  not  hostile  to  each  other, 
then  all  spiritual  relations  become  unintelligible  to 
us.  A  burglar  may  as  well  be  devout  as  another 
man.  If  one  can  love  his  neighbor  and  spend  his 
life  in  plundering  him,  the  distinction  between 
light  and  darkness  disappears.  Herein  lies  the 
guilt  of  this  man,  and  of  others  of  the  same  ilk,  and 
of  all  who  put  themselves  in  fellowship  with  them, 


Association  of  Ministers          145 

that  they  confound  ethical  distinctions  and  make 
the  world  one  medley  of  wrongdoing.  Is  not 
this  what  our  Saviour  meant  when  he  said,  "Ye 
cannot  serve  God  and  mammon"?  The  two  spir- 
itual methods  are  incompatible  and  incapable  of 
assimilation.  If  we  give  business  the  one  standard 
and  Christianity  the  other  they  become  at  once 
irreconcilable.  All  that  remains  for  us  is  to  choose 
between  them.  The  political  world  will  follow  the 
business  world,  the  social  world  will  take  the  same 
line  of  march,  and  the  Christian  world  will— 
what  will  it  do?  Concede  these  forms  of  activity 
to  the  devil,  and  what  remains  to  righteousness? 
Nothing  but  the  crumbs  which  fall  from  the 
table,  the  feast  of  dogs.  How  ridiculous  is  the  at- 
titude in  which  President  Hadley  is  placed  by  the 
acceptance,  on  the  part  of  the  university,  of  a 
million  dollars  from  Mr.  Rockefeller.  His  remedy 
for  the  evil  of  trusts  was  social  stigma,  and  now, 
like  an  idle  schoolboy,  he  is  left  to  follow  in  the 
wake  of  the  alumni  as  they  shout  "  Great  is  Diana 
of  the  Ephesians!" 

Our  present  methods  of  gaining  wealth,  those 
under  consideration,  are  not  consistent  with 
honesty,  with  personal  integrity,  with  general 
prosperity,  with  free  institutions.  This  con- 
flict, as  good  Christians  and  good  citizens,  we 


146          Association  of  Ministers 

are  bound  in  all  the  relations, of  life  to  recognize. 
We  were  raised  up  for  such  a  day  as  this.  We 
were  called  away  from  our  creeds  for  this  higher 
service.  The  dog  that  will  not  bark  in  such  an 
hour  of  danger,  what  can  be  done  with  him  but 
shoot  him? 

The  man  who  steals  twenty  dollars  is  not  half  so 
dangerous  as  the  man  who  steals  a  business,  a  busi- 
ness by  which  a  man  supports  his  family  and  nour- 
ishes his  own  powers.  Do  not  let  us  mislead 
ourselves  by  a  mere  trick  of  words.  Every  com- 
petitor may  crowd  his  rivals,  but  if  he  does  it  under 
open,  fair,  and  equal  terms,  the  act  carries  with  it 
no  censure.  The  maintenance  of  his  own  enter- 
prise and  of  the  welfare  of  the  community  is  in- 
cluded in  it.  If  he  does  it  by  underselling  a  rival, 
simply  that  he  may  later  raise  prices  against  us  all, 
his  act  is  as  destructive  as  theft  of  all  good-will.  I 
am  at  liberty  to  run  a  race.  I  am  not  at  liberty  to 
trip  the  man  who  runs  it  with  me.  It  is  these  lies 
within  lies  that  every  honest  man  hates.  It  is 
these  lies  within  lies,  one  wrong  wrapped  up  in 
another,  that  make  so  much  of  our  business  enter- 
prise an  abomination.  It  is  these  lies  within  lies 
which  should  make  every  good  man  sensitive 
and  alert,  the  moment  the  evil  odor  is  in  the  air. 
The  political  dishonesty  so  painfully  present  with 


Association  of  Ministers  147 

us  is  only  one  more  swarm  hatched  in  the  op- 
pressive, malarious  atmosphere  which  envelops  us. 
What  does  liberty  mean,  what  do  free  institutions 
mean,  but  equality  of  opportunity,  open  paths  to 
all  the  possibilities  of  life,  liberty  to  do  and  to  be 
and  to  become  all  that  the  social  and  the  business 
world  provide  for  us?  Men  like  Rockefeller  mur- 
der liberty,  not  only  in  their  own  generation  but 
in  all  the  generations  that  are  to  follow,  until  these 
wrongful  accumulations  of  power  are  once  more 
scattered,  and  divided. 

Here  and  now  in  this  struggle  for  the  conditions 
of  life,  a  life  such  as  God  gives  us,  comes  the  crisis 
of  our  faith.  Our  creeds  and  our  rituals  are  mere 
rubbish  if  they  do  not  prepare  us  for  this  strife; 
if  they  leave  us  lapped  in  our  own  comforts,  with 
no  word  or  deed  with  which  to  strengthen  the  right. 
We  have  been  marched  up  by  the  work  and  by 
the  weariness  of  the  world  hitherto,  through  its 
defeats,  and  its  victories,  to  this  crisis,  this  transi- 
tion from  formal  to  actual,  from  personal  to  pop- 
ular life,  from  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  to  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  present  is  an  oppor- 
tunity, as  yet  misapprehended  and  unredeemed, 
to  show  what  resources  of  good-will  are  hidden 
in  our  Christian  faith.  Every  weapon  is  ours 
with  which  to  meet  the  ever-enduring,  ever-re- 


148          Association  of  Ministers 

turning  struggle  between  good  and  evil,  the  king- 
dom of  love  and  the  kingdom  of  self-love.  But  our 
victory  is  to  be  one  of  good  over  evil,  a  triumph 
of  divine  grace.  We  have  occasion,  therefore,  to 
wash  our  hands  and  to  purify  our  hearts  as  a  first 
condition  of  success.  If  we  are  to  dress  the 
wounds  of  the  world,  if  we  are  to  carry  no  infec- 
tion with  us,  the  process  must  be  antiseptic  from 
beginning  to  end.  The  American  Board  tells  us, 
however,  that  this  is  not  necessary.  It  is  sufficient 
if  those  who  work  with  us  are  not  under  legal 
condemnation.  The  test  of  human  law  and  divine 
law  are  the  same,  any  man  may  be  our  helper  who 
is  not  wearing  stripes.  It  is  not  our  business,  in 
spreading  the  kingdom,  to  search  diligently,  intelli- 
gently, lovingly  into  the  spirit  of  the  kingdom. 
We  are  told  that  we  may  gather  our  resources 
freely  where  we  can  and  so  encourage  charity  even 
though  we  make  the  building  of  the  kingdom  an 
ovation  to  those  who  have  unrelentingly  rejected 
its  principles;  that  the  notion  of  blood  poison  in 
the  spiritual  world  is  fanciful;  the  practical  man 
pays  no  heed  to  it.  Paul,  as  practical  a  man  as 
ever  lived,  gives  us  his  notion  in  full: 

"Wherefore  take  unto  you  the  whole  armor  of  God, 
that  ye  may  be  able  to  stand  in  the  evil  day,  and,  hav- 
ing done  all,  to  stand.  Stand,  therefore,  having  your 


Association  of  Ministers          149 

loins  girt  about  with  truth  and  having  on  the  breast- 
plate of  righteousness;  and  your  feet  shod  with  the 
preparation  of  the  gospel  of  peace ;  Above  all,  taking 
the  shield  of  faith,  wherewith  ye  shall  be  able  to 
quench  all  the  fiery  darts  of  the  wicked.  And  take 
the  helmet  of  salvation,  and  the  sword  of  the  spirit, 
which  is  the  word  of  God;  Praying  always  with  all 
prayer  and  supplication  in  the  Spirit,  and  watching 
thereunto  with  all  perseverance  and  supplication  for 
all  saints;". 


AN  ADDRESS  TO  THE  GRADUATING  CLASS 
OF  THE  PALMER  HIGH  SCHOOL, 

PALMER,   MASSACHUSETTS 

V^OUNG  women  and  young  men  are  always 
interesting.  Any  exercises  ordered  by  them 
are  sure  to  be  attractive.  Our  high  school  exhibi- 
tion fills  our  church  at  Williamstown,  while  distin- 
guished speakers  from  abroad  go  begging  for  an 
audience.  A  halo  gathers  about  a  head  just  rising 
above  the  horizon,  which  disappears  as  the  day 
advances.  There  is  a  freshness  in  the  morning 
dew  and  a  fragrance  in  the  morning  air  that  give 
way  before  the  growing  heat.  This  fascination  is, 
at  least  in  part,  due  to  our  sense  of  the  immeas- 
urable possibilities  which  attend  on  the  beginning 
of  every  life.  What  distinguished  men  and  noble 
women  have  traveled  these  same  paths,  and  come 
out  into  the  full  light  of  the  world,  the  world  with 
such  grand  revelations,  fitting  work,  and  worthy 
rewards  for  its  loved  ones.  When  we  ourselves 
have  ceased  to  stand  before  the  open  door,  we 
cannot  see  others  on  its  threshold  without  a  re- 

150 


Palmer  High  School  151 

newed  sense  of  the  scope  of  things,  of  the  glory  of 
the  light  which  still  streams  through  these  portals. 
It  is  of  this  that  I  propose  to  speak  to  you  this 
evening — the  open  door  of  life — the  method  by 
which  you  are  to  enter  in. 

If  we  can  say  that  the  world  was  made  for  any 
one  thing,  that  thing  is  life.  For  many  millions 
of  years,  it  has  been  increasing  and  varying  the 
number  of  lives,  gathering  them,  scattering  them, 
shepherding  them  always,  until,  among  the  beauti- 
ful and  enjoyable  objects  about  us,  living  things 
stand  first.  Beyond  comparison  man  is  the  most 
perfect,  comprehensive,  and  ruling  creature  in 
the  world.  He  sums  up,  possesses,  and  enjoys  all 
these  other  forms  of  life,  which  themselves  put  the 
world  to  their  own  uses.  Nor  is  this  process  of 
development,  which  has  covered  so  many  centu- 
ries, approaching  an  end.  Still  more  serviceable, 
more  beautiful  things  are  coming  forth  under  the 
creative  hand,  and  man  himself  is  occupied  in  this 
workshop  of  life,  determining  what  lives  shall  next 
appear,  whether  for  use  or  decoration  or  mastery. 
Still,  as  in  the  tree,  it  is  the  topmost  portion  that 
grows  most  freely.  The  perfect  man  is  before  us, 
though  a  long  way  off.  We  begin  to  see  him,  we 
do  not  overtake  him.  Yet  how  wonderfully  are 
things  being  made  ready  for  him.  The  house  has 


152  Palmer  High  School 

been  bought  and  furnished,  but  the  bride  and 
bridegroom  have  not  appeared.  Franklin  drew 
from  the  clouds  along  his  feeble  kite-string  the 
least  hint  of  electricity.  He  doubtless  thought 
many  things;  he  certainly  did  not  think  that  the 
first  lasso  had  been  cast  over  the  head  of  the  most 
omnipresent  and  strongest  agent  that  has  ever 
been  drawn  into  the  service  of  man. 

It  is  into  this  fellowship  of  life,  now  mastering 
the  world,  that  we  are  to  enter;  this  life  that  we 
are  to  study,  to  enjoy,  and  to  expand.  Participa- 
tion is  open  to  all;  leadership  and  expansion  in  a 
less  degree.  Yet,  as  we  expand  life,  we  shall  lead 
it,  and  as  we  lead  it  we  shall  expand  it.  Whoever 
plants  a  beautiful  garden  leads  life.  Whoever 
cultivates  intelligently  a  productive  farm  both 
guides  and  expands  it.  Every  parent  and  every 
teacher,  and  this  is  the  excellency  of  his  office,  is 
dealing  with  life.  Every  man  who  thinks  and  feels 
and  acts  becomes  a  leader  of  men.  I  trust  you, 
young  men,  have  outgrown  any  admiration  you 
may  have  had  for  Napoleon,  who  was  a  great 
leader,  by  being  a  great  destroyer  of  men.  If  not, 
you  are  still  in  the  cradle,  and  I  hope  some  one  will 
lift  you  out,  or  tumble  you  out,  until  you  come  to 
know  what  leadership  is. 

I  am  about  to  try  to  give  some  guidance  to  this 


Palmer  High  School  153 

process  of  entering  into  life,  a  process  so  constantly 
assayed  and  so  often  missed.  It  is  a  familiar  topic, 
buried  in  so  many  precepts  that  it  needs  to  be 
shaken  loose  in  your  thoughts  and  brought  once 
more  into  fresh  consideration. 

The  first  principle  I  enforce  is  Win  by  not 
winning.  This  may  seem  to  you  contradictory. 
There  is  a  contrast  between  its  two  parts  but  not 
a  contradiction.  Our  best  thinking  and  doing 
are  often  a  combination  of  opposites,  of  centrifu- 
gal and  centripetal  forces,  that  hold  a  planetary 
system  between  them  in  order.  The  arch  of  the 
bridge,  which  spans  the  stream  so  peacefully,  is 
poised  in  the  air  by  balanced  forces.  The  house 
you  live  in  is  full  of  strain  and  tension  in  opposite 
directions;  all  in  one  direction,  and  it  would  fall 
upon  you  and  crush  you.  There  is  a  maxim  that 
runs  in  this  wise,  Make  money,  honestly  if  you 
can,  but  make  money.  My  principle,  Win  by  not 
winning,  runs  in  the  opposite  direction.  Win,  win 
widely,  constantly,  laboriously,  but  be  cautious 
about  the  finish.  To  set  some  object  before  you 
and  win  it,  is  often  destructive  of  the  winning  pro- 
cess, which  is  of  far  more  moment  than  the  thing 
won.  Let  me  illustrate  this  principle  in  several 
directions.  I  presume  the  young  men  in  Palmer 
High  School,  in  common  with  so  many  other  young 


154  Palmer  High  School 

men,  are  interested  in  athletic  games.  The  pri- 
mary purpose  of  these  games  is  relaxation,  the  con- 
tribution they  make  to  happiness  and  health.  An 
incident  of  these  amusements  is  the  rivalry  called 
out  between  the  contending  parties,  the  satisfac- 
tion which  conies  to  the  victor  by  victory.  We 
have  in  the  game  relaxation,  training,  triumph,  not 
in  crescendo  but  in  diminuendo.  We  turn  the 
game  end  for  end.  We  win  by  winning,  and  win- 
ning becomes  our  absorbing  purpose.  The  play 
loses  its  relaxing  quality,  because  we  cannot  relax 
and  win.  It  loses  its  general  quality,  because 
only  the  best  players  can  win.  It  misses  its  social 
pleasure,  because  it  is  not  pleasant  to  be  beaten, 
expecially  when  the  victor  makes  the  welkin  ring 
with  his  shouts.  It  brings  the  temptation  to 
excess  and  unfairness,  for  these  help  to  win.  It 
tempts  to  betting,  to  enhance  an  interest  already 
too  intense.  We  thus  suffer  an  accumulation  of 
passion  quite  alien  to  our  first  purpose.  Players, 
through  with  a  game  of  this  kind,  instead  of  being 
ready  to  return  to  routine  labor  in  good  heart,  wish 
to  renew  the  strife  with  fresh  risks  and  fresh  hopes. 
One  has  no  right  to  play  a  game  unless  he  can  take 
defeat  gracefully  and  cheerfully.  It  is  his  contri- 
bution half  the  time  to  the  common  pleasure.  We 
are  to  show  our  good-will  'and  our  mastery  in 


Palmer  High  School  155 

the  game  quite  independently  of  beating.  When 
games  are  pursued  with  an  insatiate  desire  of 
victory,  they  lose  their  character  as  games,  and 
become  a  source  of  bitter  rivalries.  The  courtesy 
we  still  strive  to  throw  over  them  is  like  the  pre- 
liminary shaking  of  hands  when  two  men  enter  the 
ring.  The  true  law  of  sports  is  Win  by  not  win- 
ning, win  whatever  the  issue. 

Emulation  in  class  work,  pushed  into  contention 
and  finished  up  by  prizes,  is  another  case  in  which 
we  miss  our  principle,  Win  by  not  winning. 
Excellency  ceases  to  be  our  reward  and  is  dis- 
placed by  the  miserable  substitute  of  superiority; 
a  superiority  oftentimes  doubtful  and  subject  to  a 
great  variety  of  opinion.  If  the  superiority  really 
exists,  it  is  not  gracious  to  enforce  it;  and  if  it  does 
not  exist,  to  assert  it  is  cruel.  Paul  thought,  and  I 
think  we  shall  be  compelled  to  agree  with  him,  that 
those  who  measure  themselves  among  themselves, 
and  compare  themselves  with  themselves,  are  not 
wise.  There  is  an  emulation  we  must  all  entertain, 
the  desire  of  imitation  which  arises  in  the  presence 
of  excellence.  But  this  sentiment  should  be  lodged 
silently  in  our  own  hearts,  and  lead  us  to  follow 
quietly  in  the  steps  of  the  strong.  We  miss  it  most 
completely  when  we  substitute  for  it  the  wish 
to  outstrip  some  one  else.  When  we  are  pushed 


i56  Palmer  High  School 

forward  by  this  counterfeited  form  of  emulation, 
we  begin  at  once  to  put  upon  excellence  itself  a 
false  judgment. 

A  noble  profession  has  much  marred  its  nobil- 
ity by  rendering  our  maxim  in  the  form,  Win  by 
winning.  The  lawyer  who  tests  his  merits  by  the 
number  of  cases  won,  or  by  the  number  of  crimi- 
nals acquitted  through  his  efforts,  has  lost  any 
just  view  of  his  profession  and  of  his  duties  to  the 
public.  He  is  properly  an  instrument  in  adminis- 
tering justice,  not  in  thwarting  it. 

The  acquisition  of  all  profound  knowledge  comes 
under  our  precept,  Win  by  not  winning.  A  dan- 
gerous enemy  to  knowledge  is  the  impression 
that  we  know  already.  The  plummet  of  thought 
sinks  to  the  bottom  of  any  deep  inquiry  very 
slowly.  If  we  draw  the  line  too  quickly  our  meas- 
urements are  all  too  shallow.  It  is  a  common 
experience  that  those  who  have  supported  a  theory, 
in  its  own  day  useful,  become  the  adversaries  of 
truth  when  advancing  inquiry  calls  for  a  modifi- 
cation of  previous  opinions.  One  of  the  finest 
qualities  of  a  good  teacher  is  to  lead  the  pupil  to 
see  the  inadequacy  of  his  notions. 

Religious  bigotry  is  religious  ignorance,  and  the 
root  of  it  lies  just  here,  the  feeling  that  the  pro- 
found truths  of  our  spiritual  experience  have 


Palmer  High  School  157 

received  an  adequate  and  final  statement,  when 
in  fact  we  are  just  beginning  to  conceive  them. 
He  who  wins  by  winning  a  creed  is  liable  to  dis- 
cover— or  if  he  does  not  discover  it  his  neighbor 
may  discover  it  for  him — that  he  has  gained  little 
and  lost  much  by  his  overconfidence. 

These  young  people,  as  they  graduate  from  the 
high  school,  which  I  make  no  doubt  has  furnished 
them  a  good  training,  may  be  ready  to  say  Now 
we  are  through,  thank  Heaven !  we  have  completed 
our  education  and  are  ready  for  the  world.  The 
purpose  of  an  education  is  not  to  get  itself  done, 
but  to  open  up  ever  wider  and  grander  views  of 
life,  and  to  inspire  the  mind  in  their  pursuit.  You 
have  been  bowled  out  into  a  wide,  open  field, 
and  are  to  bring  up  neither  here  nor  there;  but 
to  feel  forever  those  impulses  of  knowledge  which 
have  been  imparted  to  you.  You  will  win,  if  you 
win  at  all,  by  not  winning,  by  never  being  through. 
One  more  example  and  we  will  pass  to  our  next 
principle. 

I  am  a  believer  in  what  is  called  woman's  rights. 
Most  of  us  are,  in  one  degree  or  another.  We  all 
feel  that  the  circle  of  thought  and  influence  which 
surrounds  any  person  is  sacred  to  that  person ;  and 
is  not  to  be  circumscribed  or  trespassed  upon 
except  for  the  very  best  of  reasons.  Under  this 


158  Palmer  High  School 

idea,  noble  and  zealous  women  have  long  been  in 
eager  pursuit  of  political  rights.  Their  success 
has  been  but  partial;  yet  they  have  won  by  not 
winning.  They  have  disciplined  their  own  powers, 
awakened  the  minds  of  others,  and  pushed  us  all 
into  a  new  order  of  things.  They  have  put  on 
regal  garments  and  will  be  ready  when  the  time 
comes  to  exercise  regal  authority.  Many  a  man 
has  won  his  political  rights  far  too  easily,  and  now 
knows  not  what  to  do  with  them,  except  to  sell 
them  at  some  pitiful  price.  If  he  were  driven  back 
among  the  disfranchised  and  left  there  until  he  was 
ready  to  claim  and  to  fight  for  his  rights,  it  is 
possible  that  he  might  associate  them  with  a  high 
value  and  fitting  use.  It  is  the  winning  of  a  right 
that  gives  us  the  wisdom  to  exercise  it. 

This  principle  is  one  for  our  own  personal 
guidance.  It  is  the  claiming,  not  the  gaining,  that 
enthrones  the  mind.  "As  a  man  thinketh  so  is 
he."  Take  the  two  assertions,  "The  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  within  you,"  and,  "Lay  up  for  your- 
selves treasures  in  Heaven,  where  neither  moth 
nor  rust  doth  corrupt,"  and  we  have  the  entire 
philosophy  of  life. 

This  is  a  doctrine  of  perfection.  Doctrines  of 
perfection  are  our  spiritual  inheritance.  "Be  ye 
perfect  even  as  your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect. " 


Palmer  High  School  159 

We  can  misunderstand  these  doctrines  of  perfec- 
tion, and  we  can  understand  them.  We  have  had 
perfectionists,  and  we  have  not  known  which  most 
to  wonder  at,  their  effrontery  or  their  stupidity. 

We  are  told  to  overcome  evil  with  good,  another 
doctrine  of  perfection.  We  prefer  to  meet  anger 
with  anger,  a  blow  with  a  blow.  But  these  at  the 
best  only  balk  evil  for  the  moment;  they  leave  it 
to  renew  itself  when  the  opportunity  offers.  This 
was  the  truth  which  our  Lord  had  in  mind  when 
he  bade  us,  being  buffeted  on  the  one  cheek,  to  turn 
the  other  also. 

Samuel  H.  Hadley,  a  descendant  of  President 
Edwards,  in  charge  of  the  Jerry  McCauley  Mission 
in  New  York,  was  accustomed  to  entertain  every 
vagabond  that  offered  himself,  and,  no  matter 
how  frequently  he  returned  to  his  vices,  to  receive 
him  again  and  again  as  often  as  he  presented 
himself.  He  thus  always  approached  men,  and 
impressed  men,  with  the  divine  temper.  Yet 
President  Edwards  conceived  of  God  as  thrusting 
the  sinner  into  hell  the  moment  he  caught  him. 
Between  the  two,  who  best  expressed  the  divine 
mind?  There  are  two  sequences,  not  either  of 
them  easily  broken,  a  heavy  armament — arrogance, 
resentment,  war;  or  the  more  beneficent  series — 
justice,  good-will,  patience,  peace.  Just  now  as  a 


160  Palmer  High  School 

people  our  faith  is  directed  to  menace  and  not  to 
mildness.  We  stumble  at  the  principle,  Win  by 
not  winning,  yet  every  earnest  petition  contains 
it.  Light,  more  light,  ever  more  light.  Grant  me 
that  chief  virtue,  charity,  a  love  pure,  peaceable, 
that  can  outstretch  the  sins  of  the  greatest  sinner. 
"Nearer,  my  God,  to  thee,  nearer  to  thee." 

Our  second  principle  is  a  social  one  rather  than 
a  personal  one:  Get  without  getting.  Be  more 
anxious  about  the  method  of  money-making  than 
about  the  money  made.  Interest  yourself  in  in- 
telligent, honest,  and  beneficent  production,  but 
remember  that  its  value  is  by  no  means  measured 
by  the  amount  you  yourself  secure  by  means  of  it. 
The  getting  that  you  are  to  go  without  is  that 
intense  getting,  which  is  grabbing,  the  getting  of 
Wall  Street.  Our  multi-millionaires,  and  our  aspi- 
rants to  multi-millionaireship  are  converting  com- 
merce into  a  gigantic  grab-bag.  This  is  as  much 
a  sin  against  sound  commerce,  as  it  is  against 
Christian  fellowship.  True  wealth-getting  is  a 
cooperative  process,  bringing  labor  and  capital, 
toil  and  enterprise  from  the  ends  of  the  world  to 
aid  us.  We  are  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  this  co- 
operation, to  bless  others  by  it  and  ourselves  to  be 
blessed  by  means  of  it.  There  are  few  directions 
in  which  large-mindedness  can  more  convincingly 


Palmer  High  School  161 

show  itself  than  in  money-making.  We  see  it  here 
more  quickly,  and  feel  it  more  strongly,  than  else- 
where. To  get  wealth  beneficently  is  to  lay  the 
foundations  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  New 
Jerusalem  is  of  truth  built  with  streets  of  gold  and 
gates  of  pearl.  No  poor  man  and  no  mean  man 
can  dwell  there.  Wealth  means  the  degree  in 
which  the  world  is  subject  to  us;  the  distribution 
of  wealth  stands  for  the  fellowship  of  men  in 
spiritual  possessions. 

Our  generation,  during  the  last  forty  years,  has 
shown  more  intense  selfishness,  a  more  successful 
assault  on  economic  rights,  on  social  amenities, 
and  on  civil  liberties  than  have  fallen  to  any  previ- 
ous generation  in  our  history.  It  is  not  now  the 
slavery  of  the  black  that  is  under  discussion,  but 
the  slavery  of  the  great  mass  of  citizens.  The 
inequalities  in  the  distribution  of  wealth  that  have 
gained  admission  among  us  cannot  go  forward  and 
leave  even  the  shreds  of  opportunity  which  should 
fall  to  every  man.  The  Standard  Oil  Company 
is  an  anomaly  in  human  history.  If  we  consider 
its  industrial  leadership,  the  business  interest  and 
ability  which  support  it,  its  astonishing  success, 
the  number  of  those  who  justify  and  emulate  it, 
whose  standards  of  right  and  wrong  have  been 
shaped  in  this  school  of  greed,  the  number  who 


1 62  Palmer  High  School 

have  swallowed  down  all  censure  in  the  hope  of 
gaining  some  share  of  the  spoils,  some  crumbs  at 
the  rich  man's  table;  if  we  fairly  estimate  a  tithe 
of  these  things,  we  shall  feel  that  no  such  mon- 
strous growth  has  before  oppressed  our  earth. 
Planted  in  a  rich  soil,  it  has  sucked  up  moisture 
like  Jonah's  gourd,  and  in  a  single  night  has  spread 
a  canopy  over  the  head  of  every  prophet  anxious 
to  curse  the  people. 

It  has  subverted  all  principles  of  fair  dealing  and 
raised  its  hand  against  every  competitor.  It  has 
cast  over  its  daily  procedure  the  cloak  of  secrecy, 
and  lived  in  the  dark  like  any  burglar;  it  has 
pushed  aside  every  moral  and  legal  principle  that 
lay  in  its  path,  and  the  only  question  that  it  has 
ever  seemed  to  ask  has  been,  How  can  we  advance 
our  own  interest?  It  is  equally  at  war  with  demo- 
cracy and  Christianity,  and  like  a  leech  sucks  the 
life-blood  of  everything  it  touches.  The  leader 
in  this  conscienceless  and  remorseless  pursuit  of 
wealth  is  a  member  in  good  and  regular  standing 
in  the  Baptist  Church.  He  may  weigh  down  the 
Baptist  Church,  I  will  not  say  how  low,  but  no 
Baptist  Church  can  lift  him  up.  He  cannot  even 
be  a  wolf  in  sheep's  clothing,  for  no  pelt  is  large 
enough  to  hide  him.  The  gospel  of  love  can  do  him 
no  good  until  it  first  becomes  a  purgation  in  his 


Palmer  High  School  163 

own  heart.  This  patient,  untiring,  and  unscrupu- 
lous plundering  is  hidden  from  our  censure  sim- 
ply by  success,  success  which  an  American  covets 
above  all  things.  What  is  theft  in  one  grade  of 
society  becomes  enterprise  in  another,  and  robbery 
is  acquitted  in  the  measure  in  which  it  prospers. 
This  leader  in  the  business  world  is  approaching  a 
billion  and  could  buy  up  half  the  towns  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  make  all  right  at  San  Francisco. 

I  dislike  to  speak  disparagingly  of  Carnegie, 
with  his  liberal  temper,  but  it  would  have  been  far 
better  if  the  money  which  he  has  accumulated  had 
been  more  evenly  distributed  in  the  process  of  pro- 
duction. By  positive  law,  by  neglect  of  law,  and 
by  a  faulty  business  sentiment  that  knows  no  law, 
we  have  made  it  possible  for  a  Scotch  boy,  wander- 
ing over  to  the  United  States,  to  make  200,000,000 
dollars.  We  as  a  people  shall  not  be  rendered 
enough  better  by  all  his  donations  to  cover  up  this 
folly  on  our  part.  He  may  pension,  if  he  will,  poor 
professors,  but  an  independent  and  enterprising 
people  ought  to  be  able  suitably  to  reward  all 
needed  service  without  his  or  any  other  man's 
intervention.  Business,  honest  as  I  believe  it  to  be 
in  most  of  its  branches,  insists,  in  its  higher  finan- 
cial flights,  on  setting  up  a  law  of  its  own.  Men 
dealing  in  stocks  make  a  business  of  inflating  or 


1 64  Palmer  High  School 

reducing  values  to  suit  their  own  convenience. 
Stocks  are  as  elastic  as  soap-bubbles.  If  the 
values  contained  in  stocks  were  as  well  defined  as 
those  in  breadstuffs  or  broadcloths;  if  men  dealt 
only  in  facts  and  not  in  fictions,  a  good  many  for- 
tunes would  have  shrunk  to  nothing  in  the  making. 
Men  seem  to  think  that  the  ability  to  deceive  con- 
stitutes a  right  to  deceive;  that  there  are  two 
standards  of  right,  one  for  a  good  man  and  one  for 
a  business  man.  He  who  is  unscrupulous,  unsym- 
pathetic, ready  to  take  advantage  of  any  one's 
ignorance  shows  exactly  what  he  is  and  what  is  in 
him.  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself" 
is  not  suspended  when  one  enters  Wall  Street. 
The  best  place  for  a  man  to  make  proof  of  good- 
will is  in  business,  where  it  is  most  needed  and 
most  appreciated. 

The  most  plausible  apology  for  the  multi-mil- 
lionaire, because  the  most  obscure  one,  is  the 
survival  of  the  fittest.  Science  has  been  for  years 
enforcing  this  principle.  It  is  thought  to  mean 
simply  the  natural  dominance  of  force,  and  this  is 
regarded  as  the  fundamental  law  of  the  world, 
which  at  the  very  last,  shows  up  in  the  multi- 
millionaire. 

We  may  well  be  evolutionists.  The  world  has 
been  for  long  unfolding,  and  is  still  rolling  itself 


Palmer  High  School  165 

out  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  This  fact, 
rightly  rendered,  means  evolution,  not  revolution, 
means  constant  addition,  growth  declaring  itself 
in  successive  stages.  It  is  not  the  turning  of  things 
over,  and  then  again  over;  it  is  lifting  them  into 
new  relations  as  stones  are  lifted  in  a  building.  It 
is  possible  that  man  came  into  being  in  connection 
with  some  sort  of  ape,  but  that  does  not  make  him 
an  ape.  An  ape  may  be  as  good  material  of  which 
to  make  a  man  as  clay.  If  one  should  say,  I  was 
born  of  a  monkey,  without  addition  or  alteration, 
one  would  be  tempted  to  respond,  Your  assertion 
makes  that  seem  very  probable. 

The  qualities  under  which  solution,  evolution  is 
going  forward  are  constantly  changing.  The  test 
of  to-day  is  not  that  of  yesterday.  Physical  force 
has  settled  many  conflicts,  yet  the  crocodile,  with 
his  thick  hide  and  heavy  jaws,  does  not  command 
our  rivers.  Quick  senses,  fleetness  of  foot,  a  deli- 
cate response  to  the  world  enter,  one  by  one,  into 
the  struggle  for  existence,  and  make  evolution  a 
development  of  the  higher  forms  of  life.  In  due 
time  come  the  fawn  and  the  foal,  the  bird  of 
feather  and  of  song.  A  man  with  a  revolver  is 
more  formidable  than  a  Boabdil;  a  man  with  per- 
sonal qualities  that  draw  followers  together  is  more 
formidable  than  the  man  with  a  revolver.  Inven- 


1 66  Palmer  High  School 

tion  takes  the  place  of  force,  and  good-will,  the 
place  of  invention.  The  survival  of  the  fittest  is 
destined  to  mean  the  survival  of  one  who  possesses 
most  of  the  divine  tenderness.  The  man  who 
justifies  the  multi-millionaire  as  the  survival  of  the 
fittest  has  not  yet  learned  what  the  fittest  is.  The 
shark  survives  until  the  man  with  a  harpoon  comes 
along.  When  the  world  shall  at  length  pronounce 
for  good-will  its  verdict  will  be  irrevocable.  Napo- 
leon said  that  God  was  on  the  side  of  the  heaviest 
artillery.  What  did  he  think  of  it  when  he  sank 
into  his  socket  and  flickered,  like  an  expiring  candle, 
on  the  island  of  St.  Helena? 

There  was  a  time,  not  so  very  far  back,  as  I  can 
testify,  when  the  whip  was  thought  to  be  the  chief 
instrument  in  school  discipline.  To-day  he  is  re- 
garded as  the  best  teacher  who  has  most  of  the 
milk  of  human  kindness. 

This  second  principle,  Get  without  getting, 
applies  to  social  position  and  political  honor,  as 
well  as  to  material  possessions.  We  have  been 
compelled  to  devise  a  new  word  with  which  to 
designate  a  sin  fatally  prevalent  among  us,  graft. 
It  is  becoming  a  ruling  passion  of  those  in  the  fore- 
ground to  turn  their  position  in  some  way  into 
personal  advantage.  A  taint  of  dishonesty,  an 
odor  of  corruption  mar  the  good  name  of  public 


Palmer  High  School  167 

servants.  We  are  waiting  to  find  the  men  who  will 
do  something  for  town,  state,  United  States,  with 
no  ulterior  purpose,  with  no  pay ;  not  the  man  who 
will  exact  the  most  for  what  he  does,  but  who  will 
do  the  most  without  exaction. 

Webster,  with  his  magnificent  endowments, 
would  have  stood  sensibly  higher  in  public  esteem 
if  he  had  been  indifferent  to  the  Presidency.  The 
shadow  that  darkens  his  history  was  some  dropping 
off  from  the  doctrine  of  liberty  which  belongs  to 
every  citizen  of  Massachusetts.  Buchanan  would 
have  passed  for  a  man  of  fair  endowment,  if  he  had 
never  been  made  President.  He  did  not  possess 
that  sound  civic  judgment  which  the  times  de- 
manded. He  was  concessive  without  reason,  and 
obstinate  without  cause.  Like  one  crossing  a 
street  thronged  with  vehicles,  he  hesitated,  stopped, 
and  was  run  over. 

There  is  a  portrait  that  hangs  in  my  sleeping- 
room.  In  the  dark  hours  of  night  it  is  not  visible. 
As  daylight  filters  in,  it  slowly  finds  its  lineaments. 
When  the  day  has  fully  come,  it  too  comes  back 
to  the  world  of  realities,  with  its  faults  and  merits 
all  on  it.  The  only  question  then  is  what  is  its 
excellence.  The  light  is  sure  to  come  in  due  time 
to  every  one.  Garrison,  in  the  anti-slavery  con- 
flict, seemed  to  most  a  man  to  be  scorned  and  hated. 


1 68  Palmer  High  School 

Now,  as  the  day  dawns,  we  only  remember  his 
consecration  to  liberty.  He  got  without  getting; 
labored,  and  left  the  years  to  crown  his  labor. 

I  have  one  more  principle  which  need  not  detain 
us,  Live  by  living.  Overlook  nothing,  postpone 
nothing,  enter  by  the  blessings  near  to  you  into 
the  blessings  which  lie  beyond.  This  is  a  law  of 
growth,  and  yet  one  often  forgotten.  Men  think 
they  are  purchasing  a  future  good  by  a  self-denial 
which  merely  robs  the  present.  In  the  living 
thing,  the  present  gathers  up  the  gains  of  the  past 
and  makes  them  the  promise  of  the  future.  The 
flower,  fruit,  and  seed  are  all  in  one  product.  At 
some  great  festival,  we  are  anxious  to  secure  a 
position  in  which  the  procession  shall  pass  before 
us.  A  station  is  given  each  of  us  in  the  grandest  of 
all  movements,  the  onward  march  of  the  world, 
from  which  we  can  see,  with  eyes  wide  open  what 
has  been,  is,  and  is  to  be,  in  the  progress  of  events ; 
that  station  is  our  own  lives.  We  may  limit  or 
lose  our  advantage  in  two  ways.  Every  form 
of  dissipation  blinds  the  eyes.  The  intemperate 
man,  in  the  beginning,  thinks  he  is  living  by  liv- 
ing, but  as  the  burden  of  appetite  grows  heavy 
upon  him,  he  finds  that  instead  of  winning  life  he 
has  lost  and  wasted  it.  There  is  no  deeper  pathos 
than  that  of  a  life  drowned  in  its  own  pleasures. 


Palmer  High  School  169 

This  principle  is  also  lost  sight  of  when  one  pro- 
poses to  live  by  crucifying  life,  when  he  looks  on 
hard  work  and  self-denial  as  things  good  in  them- 
selves. We  come  to  know  what  life  is,  and  to  be 
truly  thankful  for  it,  only  by  gladly  enjoying  it. 
The  goodness  of  God  is  disclosed  in  the  gifts  of 
God.  When  we  meet  men  most  freely,  give  the 
most,  and  receive  the  most,  we  best  understand 
our  lives  and  the  lives  of  our  fellow-men.  An  ever 
larger  conception  of  life,  a  growing  effort  to  round 
it  out  to  its  full  proportions,  this  is  evolution  in  the 
spiritual  world.  Religious  faith  will  only  become 
to  us  what  it  ought  to  be  when  we  have  learned 
the  art  of  living,  reducing  its  sorrows,  increasing  its 
joys,  and  entering  at  every  step  into  the  rewards  of 
labor.  Our  Lord  bids  us  to  take  no  thought  of 
the  morrow,  because  our  thought  is  vexatious  and 
inadequate.  We  are  not  to  burden  ourselves  with 
anxieties  and  fears  that  may  never  mature,  but 
to  move  trippingly  with  the  events  which  bear  us 
far  more  than  we  bear  them.  When  one  gets  in 
the  habit  of  carrying  the  world,  the  world  becomes 
a  very  great  load.  Live  by  living,  thus  we  arrive 
at  the  divine  mind.  Plant  one  foot  of  your  di- 
viders at  the  center  where  appetites,  affections, 
inspirations  come  together,  with  the  other  sweep  a 
full  circle  over  all  you  can  easily  cover.  Restrained 


170  Palmer  High  School 

appetites  will  give  reality,  practicality,  and  sound- 
ness to  your  labors.  Affections  will  widen  your 
aim,  pleasures  will  multiply  the  pleasures  of  others. 
Inspirations  will  lead  you  out  hopefully  into  that 
illimitable  world  that  lies  about  you. 

It  will  require  much  wisdom,  young  people,  to 
understand  and  to  apply  these  principles,  Win  by 
not  winning,  Get  without  getting,  Live  by  living. 
You  can  put  them  in  another  form:  Don't  stop, 
Don't  crowd,  Don't  be  stupid.  You  are  moving 
with  men,  close  up  quietly  as  the  opportunity 
offers.  Be  true  to  yourselves,  true  to  others,  true 
to  the  plan  of  life.  Life  takes  time  and  has  time. 
The  surest  thing  we  know  is  that  events  are  never 
finished,  are  forever  being  finished.  The  world  is 
a  through  train.  Our  wisdom  turns  on  sticking 
to  it.  This  is  the  open  door.  If  we  enter  in,  we 
cannot  but  be  saved. 


PHI   BETA  KAPPA  ADDRESS 

UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN 

f  HAVE  been  invited  to  address  you  on  the  motto 
of  our  association,  <J?tXoao<p(a  £tou  xu^epv^tY)*;, 
"Philosophy  the  pilot  of  life."  No  theme  could 
be  more  to  my  liking,  or  more  to  the  purposes 
of  sound  thought.  While  philosophy  is  a  great 
deep,  it  is  also  a  broad  ocean.  I  shall  not  aim  at 
any  deep-sea  dredging,  whose  results  are  remote 
and  obscure,  but  shall  content  myself  with  those 
wide  and  stimulating,  even  though  superficial, 
views  which  greet  us  as  we  look  out  over  the  vast 
expanse  of  knowledge,  rippling  near  and  far  in  the 
sunlight  of  our  common  consciousness. 

Let  us  start  with  a  hasty  sketch  of  the  field  of 
human  thought.  We  have  many  words  which  we 
apply  to  it,  wisdom,  philosophy,  science,  know- 
ledge. Of  these  four,  knowledge  is  the  most  com- 
prehensive. This  stands  for  our  entire  store  of 
information,  the  information  of  all,  into  which  the 
rivulets  and  the  rivers  of  acquisition  have  been 
pouring  from  the  beginning  as  into  an  ocean  that 

171 


172  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

can  never  be  filled  and  can  never  overflow.  This 
common  knowledge,  this  universal  wealth,  of 
which  our  own  is  but  an  insignificant  part,  is  con- 
stantly underrated  by  us.  The  little  inlet  that 
floats  our  own  shallop  seems  more  to  us  than  all  the 
sea  besides.  We  are  apt  to  think  the  knowledge 
of  the  common  man  as  much  of  the  nature  of  ig- 
norance. The  reverse  is  often  true,  and  our  special 
theories  are  the  wax-lights  in  the  blaze  of  this  mid- 
day sun.  The  sound  principles,  the  underlying 
postulate,  the  eternal  methods  of  thought  are  all 
present  in  this  universal  knowledge,  and  present  in 
their  most  efficient  and  wholesome  form.  What- 
ever any  of  us  may  be  able  to  contribute  to  the 
intellectual  possessions  of  the  world,  must,  sooner 
or  later,  be  poured  into  and  unite  with  this  aggre- 
gate of  human  wisdom.  It  is  this  which  holds 
science  and  philosophy  alike  in  solution,  and  turns 
them  into  the  hourly  nourishment  of  every  form  of 
intellectual  life.  Common  knowledge  is  the  vital 
protoplasm,  not  yet  differentiated  into  distinct 
organs  and  distinct  forms  of  life,  but  remaining 
the  source  of  all  and  the  vital  receptacle  of  all. 

Science  and  philosophy,  special  directions  of 
knowledge,  have  been  constantly  falling  into 
disagreement  and  rivalry,  a  conflict  which,  like 
that  between  labor  and  capital,  is  a  very  in- 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  173 

adequate  expression  of  their  real  relations.  Phi- 
losophy as  metaphysics,  and  science  as  empiricism, 
flout  each  other,  and  cast  endless  scorn,  the  one  on 
the  groveling  ways  of  its  rival,  and  the  other  on  the 
aimless  flight  amid  clouds  of  its  adversary.  The 
truth  is,  however,  that  the  scientist  is  always  in 
pursuit  of  a  philosophy  suited  to  his  own  taste,  and 
the  philosopher  is  willing  to  avail  himself  of  any 
detached  scientific  facts  that  meet  his  wishes. 

Putting  it  broadly,  science  deals  with  causes 
and  philosophy  deals  with  reasons.  Causes  are 
the  connections  of  things,  reasons  are  the  con- 
nections of  thoughts.  The  one  binds  the  physical, 
the  other  binds  the  intellectual  world  together. 
These  two,  as  separable  and  forever  uninter- 
changeable  as  any  two  things  can  be,  combine 
with  each  other  in  the  most  flexible  and  diverse 
ways.  As  distinct  as  the  two  poles  of  an  electric 
battery,  in  intervening  spaces  they  rest  upon  each 
other  and  sustain  each  other  like  the  opposed 
movements  in  that  potent  circuit. 

A  man  may  master  causes  and  know  little 
about  the  uses  of  life.  The  moment  he  raises  the 
question  of  uses,  philosophy,  with  its  reasons,  must 
come  to  his  aid,  or  he  flounders  hopelessly.  A 
man  may  be  content  to  deal  only  with  causes,  to  be 
a  mere  waif  on  the  stream  of  forces,  but  the  instant 


174  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

he  asserts  manhood,  he  has  the  whole  spiritual 
world  on  his  hands  and  must  push  boldly  into  this 
domain  of  reasons,  which  may  seem  to  him  as 
fluctuating  as  the  waves,  and  yet  has  a  move- 
ment as  permanent  and  far-reaching  as  the  tides. 
Science  has  given  to  reasons  that  very  infelici- 
tous designation,  final  causes — since  reasons  are 
in  no  way  causes — and  has  then  waived  them 
aside  in  favor  of  efficient  causes. 

This  method  leaves  out  half  of  the  human 
world.  The  ethical  region,  the  region  of  conduct 
and  character,  where  men  take  on  a  spiritual  ori- 
entation which  throws  them  into  an  orderly  revo- 
lution with  their  fellow-men,  which  unites  them 
in  households,  communities,  and  nations,  is  pre- 
eminently a  region  of  reasons,  a  determination  by 
the  mind  itself  of  the  eternal  conditions  of  good- 
fellowship  in  human  society.  Out  of  this  realm 
of  philosophy  comes  the  pilot  of  our  voyage — a 
voyage  amid  the  physical  facts,  the  rocks  and 
shoals  and  deep  waters,  which  science  so  assidu- 
ously maps  and  offers  as  a  chart  to  our  helmsman, 
yet  a  chart  that  can  never  tell  us  whither  we  are 
going  or  why  we  are  going  thither. 

This  guidance  of  a  pilot,  coming  to  us  from  the 
higher  realm  of  reason,  we  will  glance  at  in  three 
directions,  that  of  personal  action,  that  of  civic 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  175 

action,  and  that  of  education.  Individual  char- 
acter gives  us  the  units  which  are  brought  together 
in  social  structure,  while  education  is  that  training 
process  by  which  the  citizen  learns  to  fulfill  him- 
self in  the  State,  and  the  State  learns  to  fulfill  itself 
in  the  citizen. 

We  turn  first  to  the  man,  the  fruitfulness  of 
philosophy  in  individual  life.  Philosophy  means, 
in  this  connection,  a  wide,  subtle,  yet  sober  play 
of  reason  over  all  the  facts  and  aims  of  life,  and 
an  extraction  from  them  of  the  spiritual  impulses 
they  so  abundantly  contain.  This  brooding  force 
of  a  philosophic  temper  over  the  crass  features 
which  lie  beneath  it  is  like  the  play  of  the  atmos- 
phere, with  its  light,  heat,  evaporation,  radiation, 
and  downpour  of  rain,  on  the  land  and  water  it 
envelops,  crumbling  the  rock,  filling  the  chasm, 
drying  the  pool,  and  bringing  all  into  those  soft 
outlines  which  are  ready  to  receive  the  glowing 
forms  of  vegetable  life,  like  the  decoration  of  a 
painter.  Philosophy  opens  up  the  spaces  of 
thought,  rolls  back  obscuring  clouds,  and  makes 
the  inner  world  wide  and  cheerful  with  patches, 
and  great  stretches  of  sunshine.  Philosophy  gives 
birth  to  all  the  brood  of  poetry,  peopling  the  world 
with  spirits  akin  to  itself,  and  translating  it  into 
creations  of  passion  and  affection. 


176  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

Philosophy  is  not  to  be  judged  by  its  fallacies. 
It  must  stand  with  us  for  the  habitual  flow  of 
reason,  bringing  to  every  part  of  life  its  most 
adequate  solution.  Like  the  wings  on  the  san- 
dals of  Mercury,  it  makes  the  spirit  the  swift 
messenger  of  the  gods,  going  whither  it  will.  The 
sensuous  temper  is  the  inflexible  patten  with  which 
the  peasant  thumps  along  his  sloppy  way,  tallying 
off  his  slow  steps  as  he  returns  from  his  day's  labor. 

This  light,  volatile  temper  of  philosophy  is 
brought  out  in  the  dialogue  between  Touchstone 
and  the  shepherd,  Corin. 

"Conn.  And  how  like  you  this  shepherd's  life, 
Master  Touchstone? 

"Touchstone.  Truly,  shepherd,  in  respect  of  itself, 
it  is  a  good  life;  but  in  respect  that  it  is  a  shepherd's 
life,  it  is  naught.  In  respect  that  it  is  solitary,  I  like 
it  very  well;  but  in  respect  that  it  is  private,  it  is  a 
very  vile  life.  Now,  in  respect  it  is  in  the  fields,  it 
pleaseth  me  well;  but  in  respect  that  it  is  not  in  the 
Court,  it  is  tedious.  As  it  is  a  spare  life,  look  you, 
it  fits  my  humor  well ;  but  as  there  is  no  more  plenty 
in  it,  it  goes  much  against  my  stomach.  Hast  any 
philosophy  in  thee,  shepherd? 

"Corin.  No  more  but  that  I  know  the  more  one 
sickens  the  worse  at  ease  he  is;  and  that  he  that 
wants  money,  means,  and  content  is  without  three 
good  friends;  that  the  property  of  rain  is  to  wet  and 
fire  to  burn;  that  good  pasture  makes  fat  sheep,  and 
that  a  great  cause  of  the  night  is  the  lack  of  the  sun ; 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  177 

that  he  that  hath  learned  no  wit  by  nature  nor  art 
may  complain  of  good  breeding  or  comes  of  a  very 
dull  kindred." 

The  vivacious  mind  of  Touchstone  casts  lights 
and  shadows,  marks  failures  and  fulfillments.  The 
dull  mind  of  Corin  plods  on  amid  facts. 

Philosophy  flings  wide  the  doors  of  the  future, 
and  brings  to  us  the  light  of  years  yet  to  be.  Sci- 
ence trudges  patiently  along  our  present  foot- 
paths. It  maps  out  a  road,  but  it  is  a  road  that 
stretches  over  the  same  wide  plain  to  the  limits 
of  the  horizon.  It  wearies  us  with  the  weari- 
ness of  physical  things.  Philosophy  contemplates 
many  a  turn  and  sudden  ascent  in  the  path,  and 
glorious  outlooks  scattered  here  and  there.  The 
Chinese,  in  shooting  the  rapids  of  their  swift 
streams,  strain  at  the  oars  to  keep  a  motion  of  its 
own  on  the  boat,  and  so  make  the  helm  effective. 
Otherwise  they  strike  on  the  first  rock  in  the 
channels.  Philosophy  gives  the  mind  headway, 
and  enables  it  to  avoid  innumerable  dangers  that 
wreck  the  thoughtless  man  by  simply  getting  in 
his  way.  It  is  with  much  fitness  that  philosophy 
is  said  to  be  the  pilot  of  life,  one  who  steps  on 
board  from  a  foreign  land  and  guides  us  into  port. 
Reasons  took  on  the  designation  of  final  causes 
from  this  very  fact  that  they  look  forward,  not 


1 78  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

backward.  The  doctrine  of  immortality  is  a  thing 
of  reasons.  Causes,  as  they  are  summoned  in  order 
to  testify,  can  only  make  answer,  It  is  not  in  us. 
We  have  no  word  and  no  vision. 

The  first  purpose,  then,  that  philosophy  sub- 
serves in  our  individual  life  is  to  lift  our  thoughts, 
to  give  space,  air,  and  light  around  us,  stimu- 
lating our  various  activities.  There  is  thus  a 
fellowship  of  good  things,  running  up  from  our 
first  contact  with  sensuous  pleasure  to  the  highest 
inspiration  of  hope  in  the  presence  of  objects  that 
just  begin  to  be  known  to  the  spirit. 

A  second  service  is,  that  by  means  of  it,  we 
escape  the  erratic  escapades  of  thought,  the  foolish 
eccentricities  of  mind-steam,  bursting  out  in  a 
wasteful  jet  because  it  is  put  to  no  service,  be- 
cause the  engine  is  standing  still.  Men  of  genius 
are  addicted  to  these  intellectual  spurts,  and  the 
half -taught  are  great  admirers  of  them.  They 
like  a  leader  who  breaks  away  from  the  haunts 
of  man,  and  starts  for  the  wilderness,  where  he 
and  his  followers  in  due  time  perish.  Just  now 
one  of  these  meteors  has  gone  out  in  darkness, 
Nietzsche,  who  added  to  some  extreme  ideas  in  art 
a  bitter  attack  on  ethical  canons.  A  spurious 
mushroom  philosophy  is  always  springing  up 
among  the  rank  growth  of  science,  and  many  ac- 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  179 

cept  it  in  lieu  of  more  adequate  theory.  Haeckel 
may  be  wise  in  science,  but  he  is  a  mere  charlatan 
in  philosophy.  One  purpose  of  a  rational  faith  is 
to  exclude  an  irrational  one,  and  to  escape  that 
emptiness  which  leaves  a  man  open  to  all  the  va- 
garies of  thought.  Our  own  dog  keeps  the  neigh- 
bors' dogs  at  a  distance.  We  need  some  kind  of 
tom-tom  to  drown  the  racket  made  by  other 
people. 

A  third  function  of  philosophy,  akin  to  this 
second  function,  is,  that  by  it  we  maintain  our 
connection  with  the  great  among  men,  we  move 
forward,  slowly  it  may  be  but  safely,  with  the 
camp  of  humanity.  There  is  oftentimes  an  un- 
bearable conceit  in  learned  men.  They  are  open  to 
the  taunt  of  Job,  "Ye  are  the  people,  and  wisdom 
shall  die  with  you. "  It  will  not  die  with  them,  be- 
cause it  was  not  born  with  them.  The  reservoirs 
of  wisdom  are  in  the  world  at  large;  when  a  man 
brings  forward  his  theory  of  knowledge  in  the  face 
of  all  that  has  been,  he  is  suffering  from  the  pre- 
sumption of  childhood.  Human  knowledge  is  not 
the  product  of  coherent  thought  simply,  desirable 
as  that  may  be.  A  great  part  of  it  is  the  product 
of  the  collisions,  corrections,  and  self-adjustments 
of  human  actions ;  the  slow  settling  of  sedimentary 
truth  into  the  rich  soil  of  human  experience. 


i8o  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

Principles  of  conduct,  methods  of  procedure,  are 
brought  into  working  order,  not  by  a  set  purpose, 
but  by  the  blind  necessities  of  the  case:  as  light 
bodies  and  heavy  ones,  large  and  small  ones,  are 
arranged  by  the  simple  jolting  of  the  cart  in  which 
they  are  carried.  In  all  our  speculation  we  need 
to  keep  close  to  this  instinctive,  empirical  knowl- 
edge of  men,  which  is  the  true  wealth  of  the  race. 
This  sound  philosophy  will  help  us  to  do.  This 
is  the  very  problem  of  philosophy,  to  expound 
men's  thoughts  as  they  are. 

Evolutionists  frequently  give  us  the  most  ex- 
treme and  fanciful  interpretations  of  life.  They 
do  not  understand  their  own  doctrine.  They  have 
not  found  their  way  into  evolution  itself.  Evo- 
lution means  a  slow-ascending  grade,  never  ab- 
ruptly changed.  It  means  the  absolute  verity 
of  what  has  been  in  its  relation  to  what  is  to  be. 
It  means  that  past  events,  whether  they  be  forms 
of  physical  or  of  spiritual  life,  whether  they  be 
instincts  or  convictions,  are  the  womb  of  coming 
events;  that  the  future  is  to  be  born  of  them  and 
of  them  only;  that  the  most  fugitive  of  them  all 
have  some  significance  in  the  march  of  years.  No 
braying  trumpet,  no  flaunting  flag,  that  has  not  a 
meaning  and  a  place  and  a  power  in  this  compre- 
hensive march. 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  181 

For  a  single  man,  therefore,  scientist  or  other- 
wise, to  confront  such  a  potent  throng,  coming 
down  upon  him  with  the  accumulated  momentum 
of  centuries,  to  wave  his  hand  and  to  bid  them  fall 
back,  is  nothing  short  of  March  madness.  Of 
this  sort  of  extravagance  of  speculation  we  have 
abundant  examples  in  religion.  Every  church  has 
its  own  expression  of  belief;  its  own  restricted  pur- 
pose, while  its  fussy  marshals  summon  the  whole 
world  to  fall  in  line.  Few  either  of  the  brood 
of  belief  or  unbelief  understand  what  fiery,  in- 
exhaustible spiritual  impulses  lie  at  the  great 
heart  of  humanity,  sure,  as  hitherto,  to  drive 
it  on  along  the  painful  uplift  of  a  spiritual 
development. 

Not  long  since  I  was  in  the  Catholic  cathedral 
of  New  York.  The  imposing  assembly-room  was 
full  of  men  and  women,  old  men,  middle-aged  men, 
and  young  men,  all  of  them  intent  on  the  sensuous 
movement  of  the  spiritual  forces  finding  expres- 
sion there.  It  was  an  undeniable  utterance  of 
what  lies  in  the  soul  of  man  in  this  world  of  ours. 
I  stepped  across  the  avenue  to  a  leading  Pres- 
byterian church.  A  scattered  audience,  made  up 
of  women  and  a  few  old  men,  was  assembled  on 
the  same  religious  festival.  What  is  the  instruc- 
tion of  these  two  facts,  which  repeat  themselves 


1 82  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

in  every  large  city?  First,  if  we  confront  a  sensu- 
ous, historic  belief  with  a  sensuous,  scientific  non- 
belief,  the  former  will  prove  the  commanding 
element.  Why  should  it  not?  There  is  a  thou- 
sand-fold more  evolutionary  reality  back  of  it, 
and,  therefore,  at  bottom  it  is  sounder  science. 
The  destructive  criticism  of  science  is  of  yester- 
day. A  film  of  oil  poured  on  the  ocean  is  not 
going  to  control  its  tides.  These  were  provided 
for  when  the  solar  system  was  shaped. 

Second,  a  narrow  speculative  exposition  of  the 
spiritual  world  will  not  govern  human  life.  It  is 
like  a  distillation  in  an  open  retort.  The  residu- 
ary remainder  becomes  less  and  less.  What  we 
need  is  a  wider,  more  comprehensive  philosophy 
of  life,  or,  if  you  prefer  the  word,  wisdom.  Wis- 
dom may  be  defined  as  that  harmonious  union 
of  causes  and  reasons  in  which  they  sustain  each 
other,  and  correct  each  other.  Wisdom  cries  in 
the  streets,  because  she  brings  guidance  to  the 
masses  of  men.  The  third  lesson  is  the  one  we 
have  in  hand :  a  sound  philosophy  keeps  us  close  to 
human  life,  and  our  theories  will  prosper  whether 
they  be  religious  or  civic  or  social,  in  the  measure 
in  which  they  express  our  common  wants.  The 
merchandise  of  wisdom  is  better  than  the  mer- 
chandise of  silver,  because  it  is  more  universal. 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  183 

A  religion  that  fails  to  handle  human  life  as  the 
only  real  work  before  it ;  a  philosophy  that  misses 
the  problem  of  human  knowledge  and  puts  some- 
thing else  in  its  place  will  alike  drop  away  as 
events  unfold  themselves.  It  is  this  unfolding 
force  of  the  world  that  gives  and  accepts  all  ex- 
planation. The  soundest  philosophy  is  the  best 
rendering  we  have  of  it;  and  it  renews  itself  in 
each  generation  with  unending  labor.  The  world 
and  the  theory  of  the  world,  the  whole  world 
physical  and  spiritual  and  the  last  word  concern- 
ing it  forever  stand  over  against  each  other,  the 
two  supports  of  wisdom,  and  the  true  terms  of 
philosophy. 

The  cantilever  bridge,  with  its  skillful  poise, 
thrusts  forth  its  great  arc  from  a  single  pier.  It 
must  meet  the  return  arc  from  the  opposite  pier, 
and  with  corrective  weight  and  push  sustain  it 
and  be  sustained  by  it.  Thus  we  have  the  high- 
way of  commerce.  We  span  no  stream  from  a 
single  shore,  we  strike  the  farther  shore  by  sup- 
ports from  that  shore  itself.  We  unite  the  physi- 
cal and  the  spiritual  worlds,  across  the  swift,  dark 
stream  that  washes  them  both,  by  twin  supports, 
sensuous  and  supersensuous,  that  are  alike  im- 
bedded in  our  daily  lives,  causes  and  reasons,  form 
and  inner  force.  Science  and  psychology  are 


184  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

with  us  as  the  starting  point  and  terminus  of  that 
philosophy  which  rounds  over  the  all  of  knowledge 
and  makes  the  world  one,  one  in  terms  so  far 
apart  and  yet  so  near  each  other.  If  we  cling  to 
things,  we  get  no  spiritual  support ;  if  we  hold  fast 
to  visions,  we  secure  no  sensuous  footing;  if  we 
unite  the  two,  the  center  of  our  arc  stands  firm 
above  the  surging  tide. 

Science  must  be  constantly  turned  into  phi- 
losophy to  retain  its  stimulating  power.  Mere 
facts  are  that  "much  knowledge"  which  is  weari- 
some to  the  flesh.  Knowledge  that  comes  to  us 
as  reasons  is  no  more  fatiguing  than  a  new  day  to 
childhood.  One  visits  a  large  publishing  establish- 
ment. The  stereotype  plates  are  piled  from  floor 
to  ceiling.  What  shall  we  do  with  all  this  dead 
material  of  knowledge?  Be  not  disturbed.  Only 
here  and  there  a  box  will  be  dug  out  for  a  new  edi- 
tion. In  a  brief  period  all  will  be  returned  to  the 
smelting  pot,  and  new  plates  in  new  boxes  take 
their  places.  The  knowledge  which  is  in  them  will 
have  passed  into  a  higher  philosophy  of  life. 

Philosophy,  by  being  a  constructive  power  in  our 
individual  lives,  becomes  also,  in  the  second  place, 
an  interpreting  power  in  our  collective  life.  The 
true  environment  of  the  man  is  society.  It  is  in 
this  direction  that  his  chief  powers  get  expression, 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  185 

take  on  form,  and  multiply  themselves  many  fold 
by  combination.  Conduct  and  character  lie  be- 
tween men.  The  water  is  no  more  a  medium  of 
life  to  the  fish,  or  the  air  to  the  bird  than  is  social 
intercourse  to  the  spirit  of  man. 

This  is  not  denying  the  force  of  physical  things, 
but  is  assigning  them  their  true  relation  as  condi- 
tions and  means  of  power,  not  the  very  sub- 
stance and  form  of  power.  They  are  what  the 
tools  are  to  the  workman,  they  aid  and  they  limit 
his  execution,  they  do  not  determine  its  direction 
or  its  purpose.  A  nation  has  its  accepted  prin- 
ciples, its  confirmed  characteristics,  its  habitual 
sentiments,  and  these  modify  and  expand  them- 
selves by  perpetual  interaction,  until  they  become 
that  stream  of  inheritance  which  treasures  all  the 
spiritual  wealth  of  the  world,  and  transmits  it  for 
further  increase.  All  causes  are  simple,  all  lines 
of  physical  transfer  single,  compared  with  these 
tendencies  to  good  or  evil,  to  apprehension  or  mis- 
apprehension, to  fellowship  or  strife,  which  come 
floating  down  upon  us  in  the  blood  of  our  race. 
Here  is  present  every  method  of  reasoning,  every 
shifty  and  sagacious  impulse,  every  custom  with 
which  we  safeguard  action  until  a  web  of  life  is 
thrown  over  us  from  which  there  is  no  escape; 
which  gives  form  and  color  and  changeable  light 


1 86  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

to  character,  as  the  mantle  of  a  mollusk  to  its 
shell.  There  must  be  a  large  discourse  of  reason, 
a  deep  analysis  of  the  spiritual  terms  of  life,  a 
subtle  and  a  practical  philosophy,  when  we  dis- 
cuss this  collective  growth  which  receives  all 
hope,  all  prophecy,  all  prayer,  and  works  them 
into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

The  State  is  the  outline  rather  than  the  content, 
the  negative  rather  than  the  positive  expression 
of  this  social  life.  The  State  checks  excesses,  pre- 
vents interference,  but  leaves  the  great  volume  of 
economic,  artistic,  and  social  impulses  to  flow  on 
by  virtue  of  their  own  force.  As  the  circulation 
of  the  body,  its  strength  of  muscle,  depth  of  in- 
spiration, glow  of  color  lie  within  well-defined 
superficies,  so  the  life  of  a  people,  its  activity  of 
thought,  fellowship  of  feeling,  and  spiritual  inspir- 
ation are  held  within  the  limits  the  State  assigns 
them. 

The  merit  of  the  Jewish  Theocracy  lay  in  the 
conception  that  the  nation  was  a  type  of  life,  and 
that  this  more  comprehensive  life  would  meet  its 
rewards  and  punishments  along  the  lines  of  con- 
duct. The  excellence  of  the  Grecian  Democracy 
was  found  in  the  idea  that  the  collective  function 
of  the  commonwealth  was  a  supreme  function, 
subordinating  every  other  and  ready  to  take  on 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  187 

the  most  imposing  artistic  expression.  The  first 
great  era  of  philosophy  was  marked  by  a  most 
brilliant  embodiment  of  the  popular  life.  Plato 
and  Aristotle — preeminently  Aristotle,  than  whom 
hardly  another  in  the  history  of  the  world  is  to 
be  found  with  a  wider  and  more  practical  survey 
of  both  reasons  and  causes  embodied  in  a  sound 
philosophy — conceived  the  State  as  the  essential 
condition  of  individual  development,  and  only  too 
completely  absorbed  all  private  interests  in  the 
public  welfare. 

We,  in  reaction  against  this  and  kindred  ex- 
cesses, by  which  the  State  becomes  so  rank  a 
growth  as  to  overshadow  and  to  smother  the  life  it 
was  intended  to  nourish,  have  gone  over  to  the 
other  extreme  of  individualism,  forgetful  that  all 
that  is  best  in  the  life  of  every  man  must  be  drawn 
from  the  lives  of  his  fellow-men,  and  must  stand  in 
ministration  to  them. 

Science,  hastily  transformed  into  a  philosophy, 
has  confirmed  this  excessive  individualism.  We 
have  the  dogma  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest 
giving  the  dignity  of  a  social  principle  to  the 
thrust  and  push  of  the  strong.  The  life  of  man  is 
thus  to  be  scaled  down  to  the  life  of  the  brute  and 
no  new  analysis  of  what  is  fit  to  be  instituted  in 
the  light  of  his  higher  nature.  Philosophy  bids 


1 88  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

us  rather  to  throw  ourselves  forward  at  each  step 
of  ascent  in  recognition  and  acceptance  of  the  new 
principles  of  action  which  are  approaching  us. 

If  it  belonged  to  earlier  civilizations  to  frame  the 
State,  it  belongs  to  us  to  build  up  the  citizen.  If 
they  enclosed  the  vineyard,  we  are  to  fill  it  with 
fruitful  vines.  In  doing  this  we  have  the  higher 
task  laid  upon  us  of  reconciling  the  two,  State 
and  citizen,  in  one  comprehensive  and  complete 
product. 

It  is  time  for  us  to  see  that  individual  and  collec- 
tive welfare  are  strict  correlatives  of  each  other; 
that  any  antagonism  we  establish  between  them 
is  mutually  destructive.  The  public  welfare  is 
summed  up  in  the  welfare  of  citizens,  and  citizens 
are  endowed  with  the  wealth  of  the  common  life 
of  which  they  are  partakers.  Strength  is  common 
strength,  weakness,  common  weakness.  Sound 
philosophy  bids  each  citizen  expand  his  thought 
to  the  full  circumference  of  the  social  life  about 
him.  Any  failure  to  do  this  is  deficiency  in  him 
as  well  as  deficiency  in  it.  We  are  to  gird  our- 
selves with  the  public  strength,  to  feed  at  that 
truly  royal  table  to  which  every  wise  man  makes 
his  contribution,  and  to  feel  the  inflation  of  that 
life  which,  like  a  trade  wind,  sweeps  around  the 
world  as  a  part  of  its  cosmic  movement. 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  189 

Law,  wise  social  and  civil  law,  is  simply  the 
embodiment  of  liberty;  it  stands  for  more  lines  of 
action  in  which  all  can  take  part,  for  that  accu- 
mulation of  power  in  which  the  individual  and  the 
collective  contribution  are  indistinguishable  and 
inseparable  portions.  Liberty  is  power  in  free 
exercise.  Our  social  life,  by  means  of  law, 
accumulates  this  power  and  gives  it  ready 
expression  with  a  marvelous  redundancy  of 
energy. 

Righteous  law  is  simply  the  curve  which  our 
aggregate  movement  takes  on  in  expending  itself. 
The  engine  is  free  on  the  track — nowhere  else. 
With  the  iron  way  under  its  wheels,  it  puts  forth 
its  strength  at  once.  Let  it  leap  the  track,  and  it 
falls  instantly  into  impotency.  Reason,  philoso- 
phy, defines  a  way  for  man  among  men,  as  defin- 
ite, and  full  of  support  as  the  iron  rail,  as  free 
in  direction  as  the  flight  of  the  bird  in  the  air. 
The  mechanism  of  our  spiritual  motion  is  the 
fulfillment  of  all  life.  We  move  by  the  force 
of  things  invisible,  with  that  instinctive  power 
with  which  a  hawk  gathers  the  wind  under  its 
wings. 

This  brings  us  to  the  third  branch  of  our  dis- 
cussion, education.  It  is  the  office  of  education 
to  effect  a  junction  between  individual  life  and 


190  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

common  life,  to  place  them  in  mutual  ministration, 
each  to  each.  This  is  the  work  of  all  education, 
and  preeminently  of  public  education.  What  we 
have  found  to  be  true  of  sound  and  sober  thought, 
that  it  keeps  close  to  the  great  centers  of  life, 
endures  the  purgation  and  correction  of  experience, 
and  profits  by  its  slow  accumulations  of  knowl- 
edge, is  also  true  of  education.  It  must  lend  it- 
self freely  to  the  popular  want,  to  the  uses  of  the 
masses  of  men,  and  so  gain  adequate  purposes  and 
wholesome  reactions  within  itself.  It  cannot  be  a 
private  cult,  leaving  no  great  social  gains  behind 
it,  and  so  finding  less  and  less  work  before  it. 
Our  state  universities  must  spring  out  of  the  soil, 
the  roots  in  the  earth  commensurate  with  the 
branches  in  the  air.  When  one  and  another 
section,  one  and  another  class,  feel  that  they  have 
no  part  in  the  university,  the  university  itself  will 
suffer  as  a  reservoir  of  knowledge.  When  the 
fibers  of  growth  begin  to  withdraw  themselves  from 
the  world  in  which  they  are  planted,  the  yellow 
leaf  will  soon  follow. 

A  first  condition  of  value  in  education,  especially 
in  the  instruction  of  a  university,  is,  that  the  cost 
be  kept  so  low  as  to  make  it  truly  an  open  door, 
even  to  the  most  indigent.  This  is  the  very 
meaning  of  a  public  institution,  one  to  which 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  191 

the  public  can  get  ready  access.  There  is  a  con- 
stant temptation,  for  the  sake  of  more  extended 
work,  to  add  a  charge  here  and  a  charge  there; 
a  temptation  to  the  students,  in  their  growing  in- 
dulgences, to  increase  their  expenditures,  until  the 
aggregate  cost  closes  the  path,  and  puts  education 
beyond  the  hopes  of  many.  It  matters  little  how 
high  the  ladder  of  knowledge  may  extend,  if  its  first 
rungs  are  beyond  the  reach  of  the  foot  passengers. 
Scholarship,  though  a  most  important  subsidiary 
end,  is  not  the  primary  purpose  of  education. 
This  purpose  is  the  nourishment,  the  government 
of  life.  It  is  not  a  searchlight,  but  an  arc  light, 
that  we  are  setting  up  to  illuminate  all  dark 
ways. 

The  teacher  is  to  remember  that  he  works  under 
a  self-denying  ordinance,  that  his  salary  comes  not 
by  speculation,  but  by  taxation,  out  of  the  pockets 
of  the  masses.  There  is  here  no  room  for  indul- 
gences. Teachers  should  constitute,  and  for  the 
most  part  do  constitute,  a  solid  phalanx,  in  whom 
popular  rights  and  interests  find  their  most  clear 
and  defensible  expression.  They  are  the  advanced 
column,  behind  whom  is  heard  the  tread  of 
millions.  Those  who  are  not  willing  to  identify 
their  lives  with  the  lives  of  the  many,  who  wish  to 
draw  off  from  the  multitude  in  some  retreat  of 


192  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

elegance  and  leisure  have  no  place  in  this  sapping 
and  mining  corps  of  progress.  It  calls  for  a 
noble  temper  to  teach  worthily,  and  he  who 
possesses  it  will  feel  little  disposition  to  complain 
of  the  somewhat  narrow  terms  which  go  with  it. 
His  life  is  a  marriage  to  truth,  for  better  or  for 
worse,  and  he  will  not  spend  his  time  in  inquiring 
too  closely  as  to  the  dowry  which  accompanies 
his  espousal. 

The  democratic  temper  of  our  educational 
institutions  was  never  more  needed  than  now. 
There  has  not  been  in  the  past  an  association  of 
men,  a  guild,  a  monastery,  a  city,  a  State  that 
has  not  been  ruined  by  prosperity.  What  the 
world  waits  to  secure  is  wealth  united  to  the  public 
weal.  Our  turn  has  come.  Not  even  the  Roman 
Empire,  when  it  was  hastening  to  its  overthrow, 
took,  in  so  short  a  period,  such  long  strides 
in  ill-gotten  wealth  as  we  have  taken  in  the 
past  thirty  years.  Another  thirty  years  of  like 
movement  would  seem  to  make  the  case  irreme- 
diable. It  is  not  that  we  see  so  prodigious  an 
accumulation  of  wealth  in  single  hands  that  no 
one  can  withstand  it,  but  that  this  wealth  has 
been  gathered  by  means  that  set  at  naught  our 
common  rights.  It  looks  as  if  our  democracy  did 
not  belong  to  the  convictions  of  men,  but  to  the 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  193 

poverty  of  men,  and  was  to  be  cast  off  at  the  first 
show  of  prosperity.  The  conflict  has  come,  we 
are  being  rapidly  metamorphosed  into  a  plutoc- 
racy. The  gorgeous  butterfly  is  well  out  of  the 
cocoon,  and  we  are  half  bewildered,  half  delighted 
with  the  gold  and  silver  on  its  wings.  A  sister 
university,  from  which  much  was  to  have  been 
expected,  has  caught  on.  Its  harpoon  deeply 
buried  in  the  blubber  of  the  biggest  whale  in  the 
ocean,  it  sails  fast  in  a  golden  sea.  The  question 
is  which  shall  conquer,  the  boat  the  whale,  or 
the  whale  the  boat.  Our  wager  is  on  the  whale. 
The  complacent  ducking  multitude,  which  only 
asks  to  stand  in  the  sunshine,  is  on  the  increase. 
Those  who  believe  that  the  kernel  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  is  to  be  found  in  the  people,  and  must 
grow  thence  or  not  at  all,  have  occasion  to  gather 
their  thoughts  together,  to  spread  once  more  their 
theories  of  life  in  the  light,  and  to  see  how  far  these 
facts  which  have  sprung  up  so  quickly  about  us  con- 
form to  them.  There  is  a  shallowness,  an  insuffi- 
ciency and  a  perversion  in  our  current  political 
convictions  which  compel  us,  if  we  are  not  to 
despair  of  the  republic,  to  go  back  to,  and  to  get 
back,  not  necessarily  our  early  policy,  but  our  early 
temper,  when,  in  our  poverty,  we  held  to  the  rights 
of  men.  And  where  I  ask  should  these  ever  re- 


194  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

turning  questions,  these  questions  vital  to  the  life 
of  the  community,  find  statement  and  restatement 
more  assiduously  than  in  the  state  university? 

This  leads  us  to  a  second  characteristic  of  our  ed- 
ucation, it  should  be  humanitarian.  The  human- 
ities should  be  uppermost.  Literature,  history, 
civic  and  social  construction  should  yield  its  vital 
force.  This  is  the  region  of  practical  philosophy, 
the  region  of  reasons  expounded  and  fortified  by 
facts,  the  region  in  which  we  put  to  noble  uses  all 
the  sensuous  resources  of  the  world.  This  pri- 
ority of  the  humanities  is  not  in  disparagement 
of  science,  language,  speculative  philosophy.  It 
gives  rather  to  all  these  their  fullest  service.  It 
brings  them  together  in  the  richest  product  the 
world  knows,  the  life  of  the  people. 

It  is  a  great  satisfaction  to  us  all  that  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin  is  so  well  advanced  in  this 
special  line  of  development.  It  has  done,  and  is 
doing,  work  of  which  any  institution  might  be 
proud.  I  do  not  mention  names  lest  I  should 
impair  the  work  by  omissions,  or  disturb  by  ex- 
cess the  admirable  balance  now  present — a  beauty 
of  proportion  which  renders  us  indifferent  to  praise. 

The  true  foundation  of  all  study  that  touches 
man  is  history — history  in  its  narrow  sense  as  a 
record  of  events,  and  history  in  its  wide  sense  as  a 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  195 

development  of  human  life,  a  philosophy  of  the 
achievements  and  failures  which  have  followed  in 
the  steps  of  men  hitherto.  Wisconsin  has  long 
been  associated  with  the  narrative  side  of  history, 
and  it  lies,  therefore,  in  its  normal  growth  that  it 
should  take  up  and  push  extendedly  the  prophetic 
purport  of  history.  The  study  of  the  past  should 
culminate  in  social  and  civic  construction,  should 
be  the  occasion  and  the  means  of  the  more  im- 
mediate and  safe  evolution  of  existing  institutions 
into  those  higher  forms  which  belong  to  them. 
This  interplay  of  the  past  and  the  present;  this 
passage  of  both  into  a  future  more  worthy  of  us 
as  a  free  people,  is  the  leading  purpose  of  educa- 
tion and  can  be  fulfilled  only  by  a  growing  knowl- 
edge both  of  the  form  and  the  temper  of  our 
social  life. 

A  yet  more  comprehensive  aim,  which  gathers  up 
and  compacts  together  all  that  is  good  in  training, 
is  character.  An  education  which  does  not  pro- 
foundly affect  character  is  not  a  real  education, 
no  matter  how  much  information  it  may  impart. 
It  has  not  yet  touched  the  habitual  sources  of 
action.  The  final  lodgment  of  truth  is  in  charac- 
ter. It  is  there  that  the  germinating  processes 
take  place.  It  is  a  small  matter  to  make  skillful 
engineers  and  astute  lawyers,  if  we  do  not  also 


196  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

make  good  citizens.  This  is  the  only  adequate 
return  which  can  be  made  to  the  state  for  its  ex- 
penditure on  public  instruction — good  citizens. 
We  may  well  be  afraid  of  a  discipline  which  gives 
power  with  no  adequate  motives  or  restraints  in  its 
use.  The  University  should  send  back  its  gradu- 
ates to  the  community  from  which  they  came, 
large-minded  and  liberal  men,  with  a  clear  per- 
ception of  the  public  welfare  and  a  steadfast  pur- 
pose to  pursue  it.  This  is  an  industrial  training  of 
the  highest  order. 

The  importance  which  has  been  attached  to 
religious  instruction  has  had  its  justification  at 
this  point,  that  it  was  an  effort  to  put  character 
uppermost.  No  wise  man  will  say  that  this  has 
been  a  misapprehension,  or  that  it  has  altogether 
failed  of  its  object.  Yet  no  wise  man  will  affirm 
that  sound  character  is  necessarily,  much  less 
exclusively,  associated  with  any  one  faith.  We 
wish  a  broader  and  firmer  foundation  of  con- 
duct than  that  offered  by  any  speculative  creed. 
The  entire  ethical  and  spiritual  world  is  open  to  us 
in  the  humanities.  It  is  here  that  all  empirical 
inquiries  into  life  may  be  prosecuted,  and  all 
speculative  ones  be  corrected.  It  is  most  unsafe 
reasoning,  that  because  character  and  religious 
instruction  have  been  so  long  ostentatiously  asso- 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  197 

elated,  that,  therefore,  in  ruling  out  a  creed  we 
rule  out  character.  We  put  restraints  on  the  en- 
forcement of  religious  opinions  simply  because  this 
method  has  not  been  found  the  shortest  road  to 
good  citizenship.  We  would  take  up  the  question 
of  good  citizenship  on  its  own  grounds,  un- 
embarrassed by  the  preconception  of  a  religious 
rendering  of  men's  relations  to  one  another.  We 
would  expound  our  lives  where  these  lives  are 
led,  in  contact  with  men,  in  the  market,  at  the 
polls,  played  upon  by  the  endless  attractions  and 
repulsions  of  social  intercourse.  We  would  cease 
to  deduce  the  character  of  the  world  from  our 
religious  belief,  but  would  deduce  that  belief  from 
the  character  of  the  world.  The  primary  facts 
are  with  us  all,  not  with  the  religionist  alone. 
We  are  simply  claiming  the  liberty  of  the  world, 
a  larger  liberty  than  that  of  any  one  faith. 
God's  revelation  is  in  our  own  lives  and  in  the  lives 
of  our  fellow-men,  and  there  we  make  haste  to 
study  it.  The  man  who  sees  the  pervasive  laws 
of  growth  in  society  and  is  ready  to  help  them  for- 
ward has  foundations  of  character  as  deep  as  the 
world  itself,  and  in  his  contact  with  young  men  and 
young  women  he  can  bring  to  them  an  educating 
power  of  the  highest  order.  The  many  faithful 
men  who  have  fulfilled  their  lives  in  the  University 


198  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

have  not  been,  like  a  nimble  teller,  shoving  dimes 
and  half  dimes,  eagles  and  half  eagles  across  the 
counter,  indifferent  as  to  their  use;  they  have 
made  the  terms  of  knowledge,  one  and  all,  data 
in  the  problem  of  life.  No  man  can  teach  who  is 
not  first  enamored  of  the  truth,  and  no  man  can 
give  the  best  instruction  who  does  not  feel  that 
every  truth  is  but  one  more  fiber  in  the  nervous 
network  of  knowledge  that  encloses  the  world. 
It  is  this  sense  of  the  universality  and  omnipotence 
of  truth  that  unites  it  to  manhood,  and  makes  it 
the  framework  of  character. 

Some  of  you  may  feel  that  I  have  used  the  word 
philosophy  in  this  discussion  in  a  manner  to  suit 
myself,  and  have  made  it  mean  any  and  every- 
thing that  was  good;  and  possibly,  also,  that  there 
has  been  a  covert  disparagement  of  science.  I 
trust  neither  impression  is  correct.  We  have 
identified  philosophy  with  reason,  and  science  with 
causes.  Wherever  the  predominant  discussion  is 
one  of  things,  it  is  of  the  nature  of  science ;  wherever 
it  is  of  the  relation  of  ideas,  it  is  of  the  nature  of 
philosophy.  We  have  equal  faith  in  the  one  and 
in  the  other.  Ideas  are  as  substantial  as  things. 
They  are  the  very  life  of  things.  Things  are  the 
permanent  embodiment  of  ideas.  Philosophy 
without  science  is  airy,  empty,  unmanageable, 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  199 

like  a  balloon  without  ballast.  Science  without 
philosophy  is  a  balloon  with  too  much  ballast,  it 
drags  along  the  earth,  and  cannot  rise  above  it. 

The  two,  science  and  philosophy,  owe  their 
value  to  each  other.  Science  furnishes  philosophy 
with  adequate  data;  and  philosophy  completes 
science  in  sufficient  uses.  Science  becomes  spuri- 
ous when  it  undertakes  to  exclude  philosophy; 
and  philosophy  loses  itself  in  worthless  speculation 
when  it  neglects  science. 

Our  education,  when  the  scientific  tendency 
predominates,  tends  to  become  sporadic,  partial, 
and  superficial.  Some  things  are  minutely  known ; 
many  things  are  not  known  at  all.  The  wide  de- 
pendence of  ideas  is  broken  up,  and  our  training 
starts  from  a  dozen  different  points  with  a  still 
farther  dispersion  of  hasty  election.  Philosophy 
tends  to  unity.  Its  primary  discussion  is  one  of 
relations,  and  it  completes  itself  in  a  system.  It 
is,  therefore,  in  education  a  constant  corrective  of 
that  frightful  accumulation  of  information  which 
reduces  the  mind  to  the  condition  of  Issachar.  All 
that  even  his  father  Jacob  could  say  of  him  was : 
"Issachar  is  a  strong  ass,  couching  down  between 
two  burdens. " 

Here  is  the  guiding  function  of  sober  philoso- 
phy, ever  ready  to  reunite  our  knowledge ;  willing 


200  Phi  Beta  Kappa 

to  begin  again,  with  an  invincible  confidence  in 
itself,  and  to  trace  anew  the  map  of  the  spiritual 
world.  Philosophy  is  the  discourse  of  reason, 
the  light  into  which  all  things  are  lifted  As  man, 
the  proximately  perfect  man,  is  a  marvelous  com- 
bination of  physical  forces  reaching  up  into  the 
spiritual  world,  and  of  spiritual  impulses  finding 
their  execution  among  physical  things  as  the  life  of 
man  unfolds  along  the  line  of  junction  between  two 
worlds,  so  philosophy,  ever  with  him,  becomes 
the  perpetual  resolution  of  things  into  thoughts,  of 
thoughts  into  things,  until  the  spirit  of  man,  by 
virtue  of  the  two,  sweeps,  with  strong,  even 
wing,  through  the  whole  empyrean.  Philoso- 
phy is  thus  not  so  much  the  guide  of  life,  as 
the  very  life  itself,  ever  renewing  itself  by  its 
own  activity. 

The  University  has  now  attained  so  command- 
ing a  position  as  to  overshadow  persons.  Hence- 
forth it  will  be  tendencies,  composite  movements, 
which  strengthen  themselves  within  themselves, 
that  will  shape  its  course.  What  tendency  could 
be  more  safe  than  one  which  keeps  human  wants 
in  the  foreground,  and  pursues  them  in  all  well- 
advised  ways?  But  this  is  to  make  philosophy  a 
part  of  life.  Our  motto  returns  then  to  us,  both 
in  our  individual  and  in  our  collective  relations, 


Phi  Beta  Kappa  201 

as  a  concise  embodiment  of  wisdom.  Philosophy 
opens  to  us  the  superb  realm  of  reasons,  seats  us  at 
the  feet  of  the  Supreme  Reason,  and  teaches  us  to 
know  even  as  we  are  known. 


THE  FIELD   IS  THE    WORLD 

ANDOVER  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY,  1905 


subjects  are  more  worthy  of  inquiry  on  the 
part  of  young  men  in  preparation  for  the 
Christian  ministry  than  missions.  If  we  under- 
stand the  claims  of  missions  and  the  methods  fitted 
to  advance  them,  we  shall  have  entered  very  pro- 
foundly into  the  temper  of  our  Christian  faith,  into 
the  history  of  the  world,  and  into  its  manner  of 
growth.  To  know  what  is  adapted  to  the  wants 
of  men  is  to  comprehend  the  spiritual  world  of 
which  we  are  a  part.  If  what  I  have  to  say  shall 
help  you,  even  a  little,  in  this  direction,  the  re- 
ward of  speaking  to  you  will  be  ample. 

The  mission  monument  in  Williamstown  bears 
this  inscription,  '  '  The  field  is  the  world.  '  '  Though 
the  words,  in  the  sense  in  which  they  are  here 
employed,  are  not  scriptural,  they  are  none  the 
less  an  epitome  of  the  scriptural  idea.  Christ, 
explaining  the  parable  of  the  sower,  said,  "  the 
field  is  the  world;"  yet  the  expression  has  not  the 
breadth  of  meaning  given  it  in  the  inscription  .  His 

202 


The  Field  is  the  World          203 

injunction,  recorded  in  Mark,  "Go  ye  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature," 
is  in  the  line  of  the  words,  "  the  field  is  the  world," 
but  does  not  give  the  thought  quite  the  same 
emphasis.  We  might  feel  called  upon  to  carry  the 
proffers  of  belief  to  every  man,  and  yet  not  regard 
the  world  and  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  as  covering 
exactly  the  same  ground.  This  is  the  assertion  of 
the  inscription.  The  world  in  its  entirety  gives 
the  very  foundations  on  which  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  to  be  built.  If  the  kingdom  fails  to 
cover  any  portion  of  these  foundations,  there  is, 
by  so  much,  a  mismatch  between  them.  The 
beginning  and  the  end  of  what  God  has  undertaken 
do  not  correspond.  The  field  to  be  subdued, 
planted,  cultivated,  and  transformed  into  the 
fruitful  vineyard  of  God  is  the  world,  created  by 
him  and  handled  by  him  in  all  the  centuries  of  its 
existence  with  express  reference  to  this  very  pur- 
pose of  becoming  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  There 
is  such  a  magnitude  in  God's  work,  both  in  space 
and  in  time,  as  to  throw  us  off  from  those  narrow 
economies  with  which  we  are  familiar.  It  is  not  a 
question  of  exactly  so  much  and  no  more.  But 
this  fact  ought  not  to  hide  from  us  the  unity  of  his 
work,  nor  to  make  us  less  aware  of  its  completeness. 
If  any  part  of  the  world  should  show  itself  barren 


204          The  Field  is  the  World 

and  incorrigible  in  reference  to  the  kingdom,  we 
should  be  pushed  to  the  conclusion  that  either 
the  labor  had  proceeded  without  a  plan,  or  that 
the  plan  had  proved  a  partial  failure.  In  this 
case  the  cactus  and  the  desert  would  remain  a 
waste. 

The  minds  of  men  are  coming  but  slowly  to  the 
fundamental  truth,  that  the  field  is  the  world. 
There  has  always  been  some  election  going  on  in 
their  thoughts,  by  which  much  was  to  be  rejected 
as  well  as  much  to  be  accepted.  When  men  build, 
removing  the  rubbish  is  no  small  part  of  the  labor. 
When  God  builds,  even  the  parts  cast  off  become 
nourishment  to  those  which  remain.  That  the 
world  should  grow  into  the  kingdom,  and  the  king- 
dom absorb  the  world,  until  the  one  is  simply  the 
fruit  of  the  other,  with  no  unnecessary  delay  or 
real  waste,  is  a  notion  of  so  transcendental  a  char- 
acter that  we  arrive  at  it  with  many  mistakes  and 
much  hesitancy. 

We  have  been  haunted  with  the  idea  that  we 
were  to  use  the  world  as  a  hunting  ground  for 
souls,  as  some  ambitious  huntsman  ranges  it  far 
and  near  for  game,  made  uneasy  by  any  bird  in 
the  mountains  or  beast  in  the  jungle.  Alexander, 
a  cruel  hunter  of  men,  pursued  them  through 
deserts  and  ragged  wastes,  bent  on  capturing 


The  Field  is  the  World          205 

them  or  killing  them,  never  on  gathering  them  into 
civilized  communities.  Life  and  wealth  belonged 
to  the  Greeks,  not  to  the  barbarians.  The  idea 
of  God  is  not  capture  but  culture,  not  subjection 
but  subsumption,  not  a  purgation  by  fire  and 
sword,  a  pitiful  remnant  being  saved  for  his  own 
glory,  but  the  growth  of  all,  by  means  of  all,  into 
the  welfare  of  all.  God  is  primarily  a  creator  en- 
larging life,  pushing  it  forward,  ever  forward,  in  all 
its  interlaced  forms,  capping  its  last  achievements 
by  still  larger  ones  and  so  storming  the  gates  of 
heaven;  thus  at  once  possessing  and  peopling 
the  celestial  plains.  Let  us  trail  no  farther  the 
Persian  notion  that  the  world  contains  an  evil,  as 
well  as  a  good  spirit,  and  that  much  is  ruined,  for- 
ever ruined,  in  the  war  which  goes  on  between 
them.  Let  us  feel  rather  that  the  seeds  of  life 
are  planted  deep,  and  may  be  long  in  germinating, 
but  that  soil  and  climate  and  time  are  all  given 
to  them,  as  holding  in  their  hearts  the  power  and 
the  love  of  God. 

This  question  of  the  divine  economy  must  be 
settled  in  our  minds  before  we  are  prepared  for 
the  work  of  missions,  before  we  can  assign  our- 
selves the  part  we  are  to  take  in  this  redemptive 
growth  of  the  world. 

An  idea  we  shall  find  in  every  way  serviceable  in 


206          The  Field  is  the  World 

understanding  the  world — and  unless  we  do  under- 
stand it  how  can  we  work  successfully  in  it? — is 
one  which  has  received  great  emphasis  in  our 
time,  that  of  evolution.  Here  again  we  are  not 
dealing  with  a  simple  notion,  the  same  for  all 
minds.  Those  who  have  been  most  prominent 
in  developing  the  theory  have  understood  by 
evolution  the  movement  of  all  events  in  a  strictly 
causal  relation.  So  apprehended  evolution  is  not 
only  antagonistic  to  faith,  it  is  antagonistic  to  all 
intellectual  and  spiritual  life.  One  remorseless, 
resistless  wave  of  physical  causes  rises  above  and 
sweeps  over  the  feeble  and  deceitful  outputtings  of 
spiritual  life,  and  pounds  smooth  and  hard,  like 
an  ocean  beach,  all  the  liberties  and  aspirations 
and  hopes  of  men. 

This  form  of  evolution  has  not  only  not  been 
proved,  it  never  can  be  proved.  It  is  burdened, 
so  far  as  reason  is  concerned,  with  the  difficulties 
of  an  absurd,  self-stultifying  process.  We,  as  ra- 
tional creatures,  are  called  on  to  say,  by  virtue  of 
our  reason,  that  reasoning  is  only  one  more  series 
of  obscure,  complicated,  causal  facts.  When  rea- 
son thus  trips  up  its  own  feet,  reasoning  should 
cease  altogether. 

Strict  evolution  assumes  all  the  elements  of  the 
world  in  their  present  qualities  and  quantities,  and 


The  Field  is  the  World          207 

then  prides  itself  on  the  discovery  that  existing 
relations  follow  from  them.  Conceded  the  clock, 
and  the  striking  of  the  clock  ceases  to  be  a  mystery. 
But  the  difficulties  of  evolution  have  just  com- 
menced when  the  physical  framework  of  events  has 
been  provided  for.  All  the  manifold  forms  of 
life,  part  with  part,  layer  upon  layer,  which  give 
significance  to  this  superb,  physical  environment 
and  make  of  it  a  preserve  of  the  amplest  order, 
have  still  to  be  explained.  In  this  explanation, 
neither  the  germs  nor  the  processes  of  their  de- 
velopment are  sufficiently  met.  The  commence- 
ments and  the  transformations  of  life  equally 
baffle  the  evolutionist.  He  is  compelled  to  regard 
all  increments  as  slight,  fortuitous  changes,  inci- 
dent to  surrounding  conditions.  But  accidental 
and  slight  changes  can  never  be  made  to  explain 
such  a  world  as  ours.  If  chance  could  make  this 
world,  it  could  make  anything,  and  we  need  no 
longer  rummage  the  universe  for  reasons.  Unless 
the  passage  from  one  form  of  life  to  another  is 
definite  in  direction  and  perceptible  in  amount, 
natural  selection  cannot  lay  hold  of  the  incre- 
ment, and  it  sinks  again  in  the  same  vortex  from 
which  it  arose.  The  Parthenon  cannot  be  the 
product  of  a  ceaseless  piling  of  stones  unless  some 
of  them,  at  least,  are  put  together  significantly. 


208  The  Field  is  the  World 

There  is  nothing  to  select,  until  there  is  fitness  in 
the  things  selected.  Strict  evolution  gives  no  room 
for  reason,  assigns  no  directions,  assumes  its  start- 
ing points,  and  carries  forward  fortuitously  the 
building  process.  Natural  selection  is  simply  the 
truism,  what  is  good  is  good,  and  will  tend  to 
stand. 

The  evolution  we  should  accept  is  development, 
a  continuous  movement  toward  a  definite  purpose. 
It  means  that  events  are  interlocked  both  by 
causes  and  by  reasons,  reasons  combining  causes 
and  causes  sustaining  reasons.  The  continuity 
of  the  world  belongs  both  to  the  plan  and  to  its 
method  of  execution.  Every  phase  of  growth  con- 
tains the  subsequent  one,  both  as  a  part  of  a  scheme 
and  as  a  part  of  its  own  fulfillment.  This  notion 
is  not  only  not  antagonistic  to  faith,  it  imparts  to 
it  a  higher  and  a  more  suitable  form.  Religious 
belief  has  constantly  suffered  from  its  detached 
and  fragmentary  methods,  from  the  fact  that  it 
bears  no  suitable  relation  to  the  world  as  one  whole. 
The  ordinary  progress  of  events  has  not  been  sup- 
posed to  be  favorable  to  it.  It  has  arisen  in  resist- 
ance to  them,  as  a  redemptive  afterthought.  In 
the  Christian  faith  a  single  people,  not  of  finest 
texture,  was  chosen  out  of  the  masses  of  men,  not 
so  much  as  a  medium  of  blessings  to  mankind  as  a 


The  Field  is  the  World          209 

substitution  for  mankind.  With  this  notion  of  a 
new  start  came  the  need  of  miracles,  miracles  that 
should  sharply  suspend  natural  forces,  and  put 
in  their  place  a  doctrine  of  supernatural  agencies. 
Thus  faith  assumed  a  detached  form  as  something 
driven,  like  a  wedge,  into  the  world,  rather  than 
as  something  growing  out  of  the  world. 

Faith  needs,  even  above  other  forms  of  thought, 
the  correction  incident  to  the  idea  of  develop- 
ment ;  a  sense  of  the  breadth  and  the  coherence  of 
the  divine  method — that  our  work  and  our  prosper- 
ity are  taken  up  in  the  world's  work  and  the  world's 
prosperity.  We  are  always  in  search  of  quick 
methods  and  short  turns,  and  for  the  most  part 
they  are  inefficacious.  We  have  neither  time  nor 
patience  for  growth.  Yet  the  one  word  which 
more  than  any  other  is  explanatory  of  the  great 
scheme  of  things  in  which  we  are  immersed  is 
growth.  The  world  and  men  with  it  grow,  grow 
into  each  other  and  grow  out  of  each  other.  The 
world  becomes  what  men  make  it  to  be,  and,  at 
the  same  time  and  by  the  same  process,  men  are 
what  the  world  has  prepared  them  to  become. 
The  hawk,  in  its  structure,  in  its  marvelous  flight, 
is  what  the  air  calls  for.  It  was  hatched  into  the 
air,  and  rules  the  air,  and  can  almost  make  its  nest 
in  the  air.  We  were  born  into  the  world,  and  are 


210          The  Field  is  the  World 

waiting  to  be  born  out  of  it  and  with  it  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  But  the  state  of  things  which 
called  for  this  change  of  conception  makes  the 
change  more  difficult.  The  theologian  was  not 
ready  to  seize  upon  the  notion  of  development, 
to  oppose  it  to  causal  evolution,  and  to  recon- 
struct his  theories  in  harmony  with  it. 

A  faith  which  rests  on  development  would  seem 
to  be  beyond  all  comparison  superior  to  one  which 
rests  on  intervention.  The  one  is  partial  and 
spasmodic,  the  other  is  comprehensive  and  per- 
manent. The  one  implies  not  merely  the  need 
of  interference,  but  even  then  secures  only  a  sal- 
vage; the  other  involves  one  creative  process, 
whose  terms  are  all  required  and  all  interlocked 
from  beginning  to  end.  If  you,  young  men,  are 
ever  pressed  by  the  doubts  and  denials  which  have 
arisen  in  connection  with  the  advance  of  knowl- 
edge, you  have  no  occasion  to  put  together  the 
parts  of  the  broken  vase,  to  try  to  harmonize  the 
scripture  narrative  of  creation  with  the  revela- 
tions of  geology.  There  is  open  to  you  a  better 
triumph,  the  feeling  that  God  is  revealing  to  us,  in 
a  new  way,  his  creative  work,  and  is  giving  it  peri- 
ods and  proportions  we  had  not  dreamed  of.  The 
just  live  by  faith.  The  great  difficulty  is  to  get 
them  into  that  spiritual  world  where  faith  in  the 


The  Field  is  the  World          211 

rational  method  rules.  They  stumble  along,  as  in 
the  story  of  the  size  of  the  ark,  as  if  the  making  of 
the  world  turned  on  the  dimensions  of  that  ship. 
Do  not  let  us  waste  faith  on  the  question,  was  there 
a  whale  big  enough  to  swallow  Jonah;  there  is 
only  one  inquiry  of  moment,  Is  the  world  spiritu- 
ally put  together,  does  God  lie  at  its  foundation? 
It  is  in  the  sense  of  the  eternal  validity  of  spiritual 
things,  of  truth,  conduct,  character,  that  our 
safety  lies.  Grasp  this  firmly,  and  all  needed 
things  will  follow.  The  bird  runs  along  the 
ground,  hops  from  bush  to  bush,  at  length  takes 
to  the  air,  and  there  is  the  end.  The  only  safety 
of  our  thoughts  lies  in  the  imperishable  convic- 
tion, in  behalf  of  which  experience  is  ever  heaping 
up  proof,  that  the  world  is  primarily  a  spiritual 
product. 

Observe  what  the  doctrine  of  development 
heavenward  gives  us.  One  purpose  runs  through 
the  ages  and  binds  them  together.  A  physical 
and  a  spiritual  world  are  infolded  in  mutual  minis- 
tration, the  shell  and  the  kernel  of  one  nut.  We 
recognize  the  fact  that  character,  whether  it  be  of 
persons,  or  of  nations,  or  of  periods,  or  of  a  succes- 
sion of  periods,  is  the  fruit  of  the  world,  cannot  be 
manufactured  but  must  be  grown.  Repeated  re- 
shapement,  refinement,  and  enlargement,  the  slow 


212          The  Field  is  the  World 

compacting  of  experience,  enter  into  the  growth. 
The  earth  supports  it,  and  is  in  turn  supported  by 
it,  until,  the  two  concurring,  we  have  the  twelve 
manner  of  fruits,  each  in  its  own  season. 

The  patience  of  God,  the  watchfulness  of  God, 
his  constant  corrections  and  expansions,  must  be 
seen  to  lie  as  a  divine  law  at  the  heart  of  the  world, 
ready  to  explain  its  hardships,  to  overcome  its 
fears,  and  to  bring  the  sons  of  men  into  glorious  fel- 
lowship out  of  this  travail  of  conflict  and  pain.  The 
length  of  the  way,  the  severity  of  the  discipline, 
its  punishments  and  its  rewards  are  not  to  distress 
us ;  for  God  is  at  work  with  us  shaping  a  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  that,  once  accomplished,  will  make  toil 
and  sorrow  seem  trifling.  We  are  not  dealing 
with  secondary  changes,  but  with  a  spiritual  cre- 
ation, true  throughout  to  its  own  nature  and  com- 
prehension of  all  good.  The  things  and  events 
and  persons  that  take  part  in  this  work  cannot 
be  thought  of  as  unfortunate.  Though  there  is, 
from  time  to  time,  a  downward  plunge,  when  the 
life  of  the  world  comes  again  to  the  surface,  we  find 
it  more  ample,  better  trained,  and  better  taught 
than  ever  before.  The  world  is  for  spiritual  at- 
tainment, this  attainment  comes  by  discipline,  and 
discipline  mingles  freely  all  the  elements  of  pain 
and  pleasure,  failure  and  success, 'discouragement 


The  Field  is  the  World          213 

and  triumph.  What  mastery  men  are  gaining  of 
the  world,  and  this  ever  growing  dominion  comes 
to  them  by  thoughtfulness  and  by  love. 

This  notion  of  development  is  fitted  profoundly 
to  modify  our  systems  of  theology,  and  to  alter 
our  labors  under  them. 

There  is  a  systematic  theology,  a  laborious  and 
contentious  product  of  thought.  In  Christian 
faith  its  chief  convictions  are  inerrant  authority; 
the  Trinity;  the  atonement;  eternal  punishment. 
These  doctrines  are  not  found  in  the  world,  in  its 
ethical  facts  nor  in  its  spiritual  discipline.  They 
are  brought  in  from  abroad,  with  much  obscurity  of 
apprehension  and  difficulty  of  application. 

There  is  another  theology,  a  natural  theology, 
which  is  not  woven  nearly  so  much  from  within, 
but  which  we  find  in  a  spiritual  rendering  of  the 
outer  world.  Its  leading  doctrines  are  a  divine, 
creative  spirit ;  the  goodness  of  this  spirit ;  love  the 
primary  law  of  the  world;  growth  into  the  King- 
dom of  God  by  knowledge,  repentance,  forgive- 
ness; immortality.  This  theology  is  drawn  from 
experience  and  is  made  ever  more  consonant  with 
it.  It  remakes  the  world,  and  as  the  two  move 
on  together,  the  proof  becomes  ever  more  personal 
and  complete.  Here  lies  the  light  of  history;  and 
in  spite  of  all  darkness,  the  large-minded  and 


214          The  Field  is  the  World 

large-hearted,   from  all  quarters,   are  constantly 
breaking  through  into  it. 

These  two  forms  of  theology,  the  speculative  and 
the  practical,  have  very  different  claims  upon  us. 
I  shall  not  be  thought  to  underestimate  specu- 
lative theology.  We  have  the  same  freedom  in  it 
that  we  have  in  philosophy;  freedom  of  thought, 
freedom  to  go  where  our  best  thought  carries  us. 
But  this  is  strictly  a  private  liberty.  It  gives  us 
no  authority  over  our  neighbor.  He  too  must  go 
where  he  listeth.  Practical  theology  is  our  render- 
ing of  the  world  of  action.  We  need  at  once  the 
concurrence  of  our  neighbor.  It  is  he  and  we  that 
are  working  out  together  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
This  gives  us  the  field  of  missions.  Men,  all  men, 
need  to  see  and  to  feel  and  to  act  alike  in  the  things 
which  concern  their  immediate  and  ultimate  sal- 
vation. It  is  the  truth  incorporate  in  the  world, 
in  the  hearts  of  men,  in  their  living  experience, 
that  we  now  need  to  know,  to  extend  and  to  propa- 
gate. A  man  may  carry  about  with  him  for  his 
own  satisfaction  a  speculative  theology,  as  he  may 
put  in  his  hip-pocket  a  pistol  with  no  intention  of 
using  it.  If  a  bumptious  heathen  becomes  inquisi- 
tive, we  may  have  a  gentle  bout  with  him  and 
show  him  that  we  too  have  things  as  unintelligible 
as  any  he  has  to  offer,  but  the  last  impression 


The  Field  is  the  World          215 

which  a  missionary  should  make,  is  that  he  is  so 
far  from  home  simply  to  dispose  of  notions. 

Systematic  theology  is  a  region  of  upheavals 
rather  than  of  deposits.  We  have  occasion  to  be 
thankful  that  so  many  of  its  volcanoes  have  be- 
come extinct,  so  many  of  its  lava  streams  have 
grown  cold.  The  Christian  religion  has  not  been 
different  from  other  religions  in  the  general  bearing 
of  its  speculations.  In  the  centuries  in  which  the 
fathers  were  framing  creeds  they  were  doing  little 
besides;  nor  were  the  later  fruits  of  their  beliefs 
beneficent.  We  should  search  the  history  of  the 
world  in  vain  for  a  more  terrific  fact  than  the 
inquisitor  Torquemada,  with  his  ten  thousand 
victims,  racked  and  burned. 

What  we  should  take  pains  to  understand,  what 
we  should  take  pains  to  propagate,  is  the  creed  of 
the  heart,  those  kindly  beliefs  and  sympathetic 
actions  by  which  men  are  bound  together  in 
mutual  service.  Men  are  hard,  dull,  cruel.  We 
wish  to  instruct  them,  to  soften  and  to  enrich  their 
feelings,  to  lead  them  into  the  conviction  that  there 
are  heavenly  paths,  which  neither  we  nor  they  have 
fully  found.  We  cannot  fulfill  our  own  lives,  we 
cannot  enlarge  the  lives  of  others  without  doing 
this  work.  The  search  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
is  our  own  attainment  of  that  kingdom.  So  meet- 


2i6          The  Field  is  the  World 

ing  men,  we  meet  God,  and  share  the  joy  of  his 
service. 

I  urge  this  view  because  it  casts  light  on  the  in- 
quiry which  occupies  you,  How  can  the  world  be 
redeemed?     It  is  being  redeemed,  and  that  by  de- 
velopment.    We  must  work  in  and  with  this  divine 
method.    The  great  religions  of  the  world  have  not 
been  so  many  devices  of  the  devil.     With  all  their 
crudities,  credulities,  and,  far  worse,  their  cruelties, 
they  have  been  a  discipline,  in  which  spiritual  per- 
ceptions have  been  awakened ;  a  shell,  which  held 
a  kernel  waiting  to  be  set  free  by  the  frost.     These 
religions  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  themselves  of  no 
worth,  rubbish  to  be  cleared  away.     We  are  not  to 
compass  sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte,  and 
then  to  find  him  twofold  more  the  child  of  bigotry 
than  ourselves.     All  parts  of  the  world  are  in  the 
divine    discipline.     Stock,    spiritual    stock,    from 
which  new  growth  is  possible,  is  the  result  of 
these    centuries,    and   into   this  we  must  graft 
the  scions  of  coming  centuries.     He  who  works 
with  living  things,   be   they   plants   or  animals 
or  men,  must  remember  that  the  law  of  devel- 
opment is  growth  and  expansion.     The  cacti  of 
the   desert   are   to   be  made  nutritious  to  man 
and  beast. 
The  inestimable  value  of  a  false  faith  is  illus- 


The  Field  is  the  World          217 

trated  in  the  religion  of  the  Greeks.  As  one  whole 
it  was  a  reproduction,  on  a  larger  scale,  of  human 
passion  and  human  intrigue.  Gods  and  goddesses, 
little  and  large,  did  wicked  and  foolish  things  as 
did  men  and  women.  Yet  out  of  this  sensuous 
faith  there  flashed,  from  time  to  time,  a  sense  of 
oversight  and  rebuke;  sin,  in  all  its  windings, 
pursued  and  punished. 

Observe  this  petition  of  Greeks  and  Trojans  in 
preparation  of  the  duel  between  Menelaus  and 
Paris : 

O  Father  Love,  who  rulest  from  the  top 
Of  Ida,  mightiest  one  and  most  august ! 
Whichever  of  these  twain  has  done  the  wrong, 
Grant  that  he  pass  to  Pluto's  dwelling,  slain, 
While  friendship  and  a  faithful  league  are  ours. 

Even  by  means  of  this  ladder,  a  few  men 
mounted  high  in  the  spiritual  world  and  remain 
to  our  time  conspicuous  for  their  virtues — Timo- 
leon  among  politicians,  Socrates  among  sociolo- 
gists, Aristotle  among  scientists. 

When  we  have  to  deal  with  a  world  that  God 
has  managed,  we  should  first  inquire  what  he  has 
been  about,  and  what  his  methods  are.  If  any 
man  needs  to  be  large-minded  and  large-hearted, 
finding  his  way  cautiously,  like  the  surgeon  dealing 


218          The  Field  is  the  World 

with  sound  and  with  diseased  tissue,  that  man  is 
the  missionary.  Society  must  pass  slowly  through 
its  stages  of  change  and  of  assimilation  as  we  indi- 
vidually pass  through  them.  Even  more  so,  for 
thought  and  volition  avail  more  with  men  singly 
than  they  do  with  men  collectively.  The  first 
thing,  of  which  the  missionary  should  be  aware,  is 
the  individuality  and  the  value  of  different  religions, 
and  that  there  is  more  or  less  pointing  in  them  all 
toward  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  Mohamme- 
dan, with  his  strong  theism  and  sharp  intelligence, 
must  be  looked  straight  in  the  eye  with  gentle 
courtesy  and  due  consideration.  The  common 
ground,  which  lies  relatively  open  among  men,  is 
natural  theology;  the  obvious  terms,  in  which  we 
stand  with  the  world  and  with  our  fellow- men. 
Our  experiences  touch  one  another  more  closely  in 
the  interests  of  individual  and  social  life,  in  the 
applications  of  the  command  of  love,  than  in  any 
discussion  of  the  economy  of  the  Godhead,  or  of  the 
parts  played  by  the  persons  of  the  Trinity.  Would 
it  not  be  well  to  begin,  where  we  all  agree  we  must 
leave  off,  in  personal  purity  and  social  welfare,  in 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven?  The  true  embodiment 
of  faith  is  a  Christian  civilization ;  it  is  also  some- 
thing which  we  may  discuss,  may  understand,  and 
for  which  we  may  work.  A  pyramid  of  doctrine 


The  Field  is  the  World         219 

may  be  built  high  and  carefully  oriented,  and  yet 
turn  out  to  be  only  a  tomb,  and  empty  at  that.  If 
we  square  our  actions  with  the  world  about  us,  the 
pyramid  of  conduct  will  be  pretty  sure  to  lead  up 
to  a  capstone  of  truth,  and  to  give  us  a  noble 
outlook  on  spiritual  things.  "  He  that  doeth  the 
will  of  God  shall  know  of  the  doctrine." 

Allied  to  the  diversity  of  religions  is  the  diversity 
of  races.  This  variety,  no  more  than  that  of 
faith,  is  to  be  looked  on  as  an  unfortunate  waste 
of  chances,  which,  in  spite  of  charity,  is  to  be 
regretted.  The  diversity  of  nations  means  a  larger 
occupancy  of  the  spiritual  world,  more  perceptions, 
more  sympathies,  more  reciprocity  of  life.  We 
as  a  people  feel  that  the  negro  is  a  great  curse  to  us. 
He  has  indeed  come  to  us  as  an  inheritance  of  sin, 
yet  there  are  noble  spiritual  possibilities  in  his 
presence.  It  is  a  question  of  digestion.  It  is  a  de- 
mand for  justice  and  sympathy.  If  we  can  rise 
to  the  demand,  it  will  become  to  us  an  apotheosis. 
If  aversion,  injury,  hatred  are  to  predominate,  we 
shall  sink  into  a  diabolical  war  of  races,  to  which 
no  wickedness  will  be  alien. 

Our  most  immediate  training,  in  the  school  of 
reconciliation,  is  in  the  relation  of  classes  to  one 
another  in  the  same  community.  This  first  lesson 
we  have  by  no  means  mastered;  this  earliest  step 


220          The  Field  is  the  World 

toward  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  we  have  not 
fully  made.  Life,  the  gains  of  life,  its  multiplied 
incentives,  its  manifold  pleasures  all  center  in 
the  masses.  It  is  they,  who  are  to  be  brought 
forward  in  knowledge  and  love.  It  is  among 
them  that  the  knowledge  and  love  of  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  are  to  find  play.  It  is  the  people,  who 
are  Argus-eyed,  Briareus-handed,  and  who  have 
volume  enough  to  make  a  spiritual  universe.  It  is 
the  service  of  the  people  that  seals  the  sonship  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour.  The  philosopher  may  with- 
draw into  some  nook  of  speculation,  and  may  spin, 
thread  by  thread,  a  cunning  cocoon,  but  he  must 
eat  his  way  out  of  it  and  must  get  again  into  the 
air,  if  he  is  to  save  his  life.  The  theologian,  in  his 
study,  may  make  and  neatly  fold  his  rope  ladder, 
with  which  he  expects  to  climb  downward,  outward, 
upward,  if  danger  arises,  but  it  is  the  multitude 
who  always  survive;  who  outlive  fire,  slaughter, 
earthquake ;  and  who  again  renew  the  world.  Our 
thoughts  must  be  as  the  thoughts  of  the  many,  our 
hearts,  as  the  hearts  of  the  many,  our  purpose,  the 
purpose  of  God  for  the  many,  before  it  will  be  of 
much  moment  how  we  think,  feel,  and  act.  We 
must  understand  how  God  is  developing  faith  in 
the  world,  how  he  is  raising  up  a  multitude,  which 
no  man  can  number,  as  the  material  of  his  kingdom. 


The  Field  is  the  World          221 

To  this  we  must  add  a  constant  sense  of  the  growth 
of  righteousness,  downward,  outward,  upward,  be- 
fore we  can  be  in  any  good  degree  messengers  of 
salvation.  A  Christian  temper  is  everything  in 
propagating  a  Christian  civilization.  The  inquiry, 
which  opens  the  way  for  missions,  is  the  inquiry, 
What  is  Christian  society,  and  how  is  it  to  be 
planted,  here,  there,  everywhere,  until  all  points 
flow  together,  and  God's  grace  possesses  the  world. 
It  is  this  which  makes  the  acceptance  of  John  D. 
Rockefeller's  gift  by  the  American  Board  so  regret- 
table. The  life  to  be  disseminated  must  be  a  pure, 
holy,  and  loving  life.  The  missionary  sometimes 
complains  of  the  worthless  sailors,  who  find  their 
way  to  foreign  shores,  but  this  inroad  is  not  nearly 
so  much  to  be  dreaded  as  that  unscrupulous  greed, 
which  eats  up  our  own  national  life,  and  then,  under 
the  guise  of  enterprise,  takes  to  itself  the  labors  of 
men  wherever  men  are  found.  There  is  in  this 
acceptance  disregard  of  the  first  principle  of  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Love  and  patience  are  in- 
vincible and  these  only.  What  we  need,  in  mak- 
ing the  world  the  field,  is  peace  among  classes 
in  constant  aidfulness,  peace  among  races  in  a 
common  possession  of  the  world,  and  peace 
among  religions  in  mutual  correction  and  enlarge- 
ment. Thus  shall  men  come  from  the  east  and 


222          The  Field  is  the  World 

the  west,  the  north  and  the  south,  and  sit  down  in 
the  Kingdom  of  God. 

I  trust,  young  men,  that  the  view  now  urged  will 
not  seem  to  you  inferior,  in  the  purposes  it  inspires 
and  in  the  scope  it  offers  to  the  propagation  of  any 
single  phase  of  faith,  pushing  to  the  wall  all  other 
forms  of  belief.  Our  hopes,  if  they  are  to  be 
adequate,  our  labors,  if  they  are  to  be  successful, 
must  spring  from  one  root,  union  with  God,  in  his 
creation.  How  grandly  superior  is  this  sense  of  the 
omnipresence  of  God  in  darkness  and  in  light,  in 
failure  and  in  success,  in  long  delays  and  in  sudden 
advances,  to  that  feeling,  which  leads  us  to  kindle  a 
single  watch  fire  in  the  universal  night,  and  to 
sit  fearfully  by  it  until  it  burns  into  ashes.  The 
preeminence  of  our  Christian  faith  is  not  found  in 
doctrine  nor  in  ritual,  but  in  the  feeling  that  every 
holy  life,  the  life  of  our  Lord  and  of  every  one  of  his 
servants,  earlier  and  later,  here  or  there,  is  another 
patch  of  light,  which  has  fallen  on  the  world,  proof 
that  the  day  is  approaching. 

If  anything  that  has  been  said  does  not  seem  to 
you  to  be  sound,  let  it  lie  as  a  bowlder  by  the  road- 
side. Do  not  leave  the  beaten  track  to  drive  over 
it.  I  left  Andover  hill  fifty  years  ago  to  confront 
the  world ;  to  do  what  I  could  for  it ;  to  get  what 
I  could  from  it.  There  has  not  been  another  such 


The  Field  is  the  World          223 

fifty  years,  nor  is  there  likely  to  be,  in  physical 
progress.  It  has  also  been  a  period  of  rapid  spirit- 
ual development.  But  the  next  fifty  years  may 
and  ought  to  be  much  more  marked  in  their  spirit- 
ual gifts.  If  our  personal  and  social  growth  is  not 
in  some  measure  proportioned  to  the  insight  and 
strength  that  are  being  gained  in  physical  direc- 
tions, we  shall  hardly  retain  this  wealth.  A  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot  stand.  We  are  di- 
vided against  ourselves  in  many  ways,  and  so  waste 
our  great  inheritance.  Perhaps  the  most  compact 
and  marvelous  expression  of  invention  is  a  war- 
ship. But  a  savage,  paddling  in  his  canoe,  never 
went  on  a  more  diabolical,  bloody  errand.  If  we 
cannot  reconcile  ourselves  with  ourselves  and  with 
one  another  in  divine  love,  then  further  slaughter 
and  fresh  overthrow  await  us,  until  this  lesson  of 
spiritual  life  is  learned.  God  commits  us  to  the 
discipline  of  the  world.  This  is  the  field  to  which 
all  our  husbandry  is  to  be  directed.  A  world- 
wide temper  and  a  world-wide  love  must  go 
with  us  before  we  can  possess  anything  well,  and 
can  enter,  even  in  the  things  nearest  to  us,  into 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  It  is  this  comprehensive 
sentiment,  wrought  out  in  a  comprehensive 
spirit,  which  will  work  salvation  in  us.  The  field 
is  the  world ;  here  all  meet  in  the  perfected  love  of 


224          The  Field  is  the  World 

God;  here  all  gifts  descend  upon  us  in  the  steady 
flow  of  eternity;  here  all  things  are  revealed  to 
us.  We  know  God,  we  are  known  of  him,  and  we 
come  to  know  one  another. 


PHILISTINISM 

INDIANA  STATE  UNIVERSITY 

IT  belongs  to  a  poetic  nature  to  be  exceedingly 
sensitive,  one  may  say,  extravagantly  sensitive, 
to  the  conditions  of  emotional  life,  by  which  it  is 
surrounded.  The  poet  is  greatly  exhilarated  by 
concurrent  feeling,  and  correspondingly  depressed 
by  sluggish  emotions,  and  annoyed  by  insensate 
qualities.  As  every  sound  brings  pleasure  or  irri- 
tation to  a  musician,  so  every  rational  creature  has 
for  the  poet  an  attractive  or  a  repellent  power.  An 
electrometer  is  put  into  lively  motion  by  currents 
of  electricity  too  slight  for  sensation,  and  the 
poetic  nature  is  strongly  excited  by  social  con- 
ditions, which  are  the  unobserved  commonplace 
of  a  prosy  neighbor. 

Heine,  the  German  poet,  was  far  more  sensitive 
than  is  common  even  with  poets,  and  was  moved 
with  instant  aversion  by  the  approach  of  a  dull  and 
phlegmatic  person.  He  cherished  a  violent  dis- 
like toward  the  narrow-minded,  unemotional, 
i$  225 


226  Philistinism 

practical  man ;  and  toward  the  English  as  the  em- 
bodiment of  this  temper.  His  feeling  on  this  sub- 
ject was  much  too  intense  to  be  discriminating 
and  just. 

"Do  not  send  a  poet  to  London"  [he  says].  "This 
hard  reality  of  things — this  colossal  uniformity — 
this  mechanical  movement — this  sullenness  amid  the 
pleasures  of  overgrown  London — depresses  the  imagi- 
nation and  rends  the  heart. ' '  [Again :  ]  "  The  English 
in  general,  thoroughbred  Englishmen  (May  God  for- 
give me  the  sin!)  I  detest  with  my  whole  soul, 
and  sometimes  I  cannot  even  consider  them  my  fel- 
low-men, but  look  upon  them  as  tiresome  automata, 
as  machines,  whose  internal  mainspring  is  egotism. 
It  then  seems  to  me  as  if  I  could  distinguish  the  noise 
of  the  mechanism  by  which  they  think,  feel,  calculate, 
digest,  and  pray. ' '  [Again :  ]  '  'One  ought  to  be  paid  to 
reside  in  England;  whereas,  instead  of  that,  the  ex- 
pense of  living  there  is  double  what  it  costs  else- 
where. No!  never  let  me  return  to  that  abominable 
country,  where  the  machines  conduct  themselves 
like  men,  and  the  men  like  machines.  The  noise  of 
the  former  and  the  silence  of  the  latter  are  equally 
distressing." 

This  extreme  dislike  to  which  the  poet  gives  so 
frequent  and  witty  an  expression  extends  to  Ameri- 
cans also,  as  heirs  of  the  same  defects. 

"  America,  that  huge  prison  of  freemen,  where  the 
invisible  fetters  would  be  more  galling  to  me  than  the 


Philistinism  227 

visible  ones  at  home;  and  where  the  most  odious  of  all 
tyrants,  the  mob,  exercises  its  brutal  authority." 

This  sluggish,  inappreciative  temper  Heine 
designates  as  Philistinism,  and  he  has  given 
extensive  currency  to  the  word  with  a  certain  class 
of  writers.  The  Philistines  have  come  down  to 
us  as  men  of  heavy  bones  and  dull  apprehensions, 
who  knocked  about  in  iron  chariots,  and  cared 
for  not  much  of  anything  beyond  themselves,— 
a  gross  people  to  be  hated  and  to  be  exterminated. 
They  thus  easily  stand  for  a  strong,  stolid  temper, 
closed  up  on  the  poetic  side  of  life,  and  open  only 
to  the  coarsest  uses  of  the  physical  world.  I  need 
not  say  how  unjust  this  conception  is  when  applied 
to  English  life  as  a  whole — a  life  which  has  nour- 
ished the  most  vigorous,  far-reaching,  and  delicate 
poetic  sentiment,  ranging  between  the  marvelous 
strength  of  a  Shakespeare  and  the  marvelous 
subtlety  and  tenuity  of  a  Shelley. 

Yet,  there  is  so  much  truth  in  the  accusation, 
and  so  much  aptness  in  the  words  in  which  it  has 
been  put,  that  both  have  held  their  ground. 
Matthew  Arnold,  of  good  English  quality  and  far 
less  eccentric  and  meteoric  in  the  movement  of  his 
mind,  brings  the  same  censure  to  English  society 
in  a  formal  and  labored  way.  The  average 
Englishman  is  wanting,  for  him  as  for  Heine,  in 


228  Philistinism 

that  delicate  sensibility  and  "sweet  reasonable- 
ness," which  make  men  truly  companionable. 
The  middle  classes  are  dominated,  he  thinks,  by  a 
narrow,  commercial,  and  practical  spirit,  which 
brings  the  sunshine  of  prosperity  to  physical 
qualities,  but  leaves  the  inner  life,  which  should  be 
ready  to  blossom  into  sweet  perfumes,  unquick- 
ened.  The  Englishman  is  a  plant  that  grows 
sturdily  in  the  green  leaf,  is  full  of  sap,  but  when 
it  comes  to  the  time  of  flowering,  its  vigor  falls  off, 
and  its  pinched  and  unfragrant  blossoms  are  very 
disappointing. 

An  American  writer,  Richard  Grant  White, 
joins  in  with  the  same  refrain,  and  is  still  more 
explicit  in  statement. 

"  In  the  last  century,  the  Philistine  element  begins 
to  appear.  The  dull-minded,  middle-class  man,  rich, 
purse-proud,  vulgar,  incapable  of  apprehending  any- 
thing beyond  the  range  of  his  own  personal  experi- 
ence comes  upon  the  stage.  .  .  .  The  Philistine  is  the 
man  who  is  steeped  in  common-place.  He  is  not 
necessarily  ignorant,  nor  lacking  in  good  sense  or 
good  feeling;  but  his  rule  of  action  is  precedent,  and 
his  ideal  of  life  to  do  what  his  little  world  will  regard 
as  proper ;  and  he  is  filled  with  a  calm,  unquestioning 
conceit  of  national  superiority.  .  .  .  ' 

"One  striking  truth  of  British  Philistinism  is  ig- 
norance of  other  countries,  and  chiefly  ignorance  of 
America.  .  .  .  These  four  men,  George  1 1 1.,  Dr.  John- 


Philistinism  229 

son,  Lord  Palmerston,  and  Chief  Justice  Cockburn, 
stand  in  the  annals  of  England,  as  glorified  types 
of  the  narrow,  inflexible,  unapprehensive,  and,  I  fear, 
supported  by  the  testimony  of  Fielding  and  Mr. 
Matthew  Arnold,  I  must  say,  vulgar  sort  of  English- 
man, who  was  unheard  of  in  English  annals  before  the 
reign  of  Queen  Anne,  and  who,  I  hope  and  believe, 
will,  by  a  radical  change  of  heart,  disappear  from 
them  in  the  reign  of  Queen  Victoria."  x 

The  pith  of  this  word,  Philistinism,  as  used  by 
these  authors,  seems  to  be  narrow  sensibilities  and 
circumscribed  attention,  arising  not  so  much  from 
ignorance  as  from  a  stupid,  supercilious  satis- 
faction in  the  things — the  external  things — that 
concern  their  own  thoughts  and  their  own  actions, 
their  own  set,  and  their  own  nation.  America 
is  certainly  not  without  its  Philistines.  As  we 
are  a  volatile,  sensitive,  and  inquisitive  people, 
this  temper  arises  with  us  from  an  inordinate 
conceit  of  our  institutions,  and  of  our  personal 
gains  under  them.  The  American  has  difficulty 
in  measuring  anything  at  its  true  dimensions, 
which  lies  outside  of  this  charmed  circle  of  in- 
digenous ideas;  or  in  reducing  the  things  within 
it  to  their  proper  relation  and  value.  Philistin- 
ism, understood  as  this  absurd,  stupid  content- 
ment within  our  own  lives,  and  stolid  insensibility 

1  England,  Without  and  Within,  pp.  581,  590,  593. 


230  Philistinism 

beyond  them,  is  a  thing  of  innumerable  degrees, 
and  one,  which  reappears  in  a  great  variety  of 
directions.  We  may  not  call  a  man  a  Philistine 
unless  he  shows  this  disposition  distinctly  and  in 
excess ;  but  more  or  less  of  this  quality  besets  the 
human  soul — a  gross  reasoner  on  its  own  topics, 
and  with  obscure,  short-sighted  vision  on  alien 
topics. 

Philistinism  is  the  Canaanitish  proclivity  of 
the  human  spirit,  by  which  it  settles  down  to  eat 
and  to  drink  and  to  ride  and  to  rule  in  iron  chariots 
in  a  holy  land.  Philistinism,  as  a  sensuous  and 
excessive  tendency,  is  directly  opposed  to  Bohem- 
ianism.  The  Bohemian  covets,  above  all  things, 
freedom  of  intellectual  activity,  and  is  ready  to 
sacrifice  conventional,  commonplace  comforts  and 
proprieties  in  its  behalf.  He  will  travel  on  foot 
and  will  stop  at  shabby  hostelries  rather  than  not 
travel  at  all;  will  live  in  a  garret,  rather  than  lack 
leisure  for  literary  work;  and  will  spurn  the  ele- 
gancies of  life,  if  he  can  only  reach  its  inner  core. 
He  cherishes  a  contempt  for  what  the  Philistine 
most  admires  and  chiefly  admires  what  the 
Philistine  contemns. 

The  writers  above  referred  to  are  especially 
annoyed  by  Philistinism,  as  it  narrows  intellec- 
tual life,  offends  good  taste,  and  restricts  the 


Philistinism  231 

domain  of  beauty.  Yet  in  a  broader  use  of  the 
word,  they  themselves  are  not  always  free  from 
this  fault.  One  may  be  painfully,  stupidly  un- 
impressionable to  moral  and  spiritual  ideas;  his 
thoughts  may  show  abrupt  change,  and  lose  all 
their  nimbleness  the  moment  he  passes  the  limits 
of  taste  and  enters  the  boundaries  of  a  higher 
human  and  divine  life.  Thus  when  men  speak 
of  Americans  as  all  alike,  all  equally  churls ;  of  the 
monotony  of  American  life,  its  colorlessness,  its 
narrow-minded  notions,  they  betray  great  want  of 
discrimination,  great  want  of  sensitivity  to  pro- 
found spiritual  feelings ;  they  are  giving  a  very  dull 
and  stupid  attention  to  the  most  interesting  facts 
in  the  history  of  their  own  time.  This,  too,  is 
Philistinism,  with  the  added  fault  of  being  of 
the  most  perverse  and  unamiable  order  possible. 
It  is  as  if  one  should  enter  a  crowded  assembly 
of  working  men  in  earnest  discussion  of  a  social 
question  and  be  principally  affected  by  the  bad 
air,  or  by  the  coarse  dress,  or  by  the  rude  phrase 
of  those  present.  When  Richard  Grant  White 
speaks  of  the  hopeless  vulgarization  of  a  country 
by  railways,  of  a  howling  wilderness  of  brick  and 
mortar,  of  hideous  brownstone  blocks;  when  he 
says  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  see  "  that  railways 
and  mills  and  forges  and  towns  are,  gradually, 


232  Philistinism 

and  not  very  slowly,  destroying  rural  England"1; 
the  disproportion  of  his  language  betrays  excessive 
sensibility  to  surface  relations,  and  excessive 
insensibility  to  the  necessities  of  average  human 
life.  While  men  may  claim  beauty,  they  may 
claim  certainly  with  equal  intensity  of  meaning 
the  ordinary  conditions  of  comfortable  existence, 
and  there  is  at  bottom  no  conflict  between  the 
two.  Dilettanteism  and  Philistinism  are  the 
same  fault  developed  at  opposite  extremes.  The 
first  is  seated  in  the  nerves  of  taste  as  organs  of 
esthetic  insight ;  the  second  is  seated  in  the  nerves 
of  taste  as  organs  of  good  living. 

Heine  says  that  "in  discussing  politics  the 
stupidest  Englishman  will  always  contrive  to  say 
something  sensible ;  but  whenever  the  conversation 
turns  upon  religion,  the  most  intelligent  English- 
man is  sure  to  lapse  into  stupidity."  Why  is 
this?  There  are  two  reasons.  The  English  re- 
press their  feelings,  and  especially  on  religious 
topics.  Says  Mill,  "Most  Englishmen  who  have 
feelings  find  their  feelings  very  much  in  their 
way."  The  second  reason  is,  Englishmen  handle 
religion  in  a  much  less  vital  and  practical  manner 
than  they  do  politics,  and  hence  feel  less,  and 
have  less  to  say  on  the  former  subject  than  on  the 

1  op.  dt.  P.  165. 


Philistinism  233 

latter.  Their  lives  do  not  spread  evenly  over  the 
fields  of  business,  of  political  organization,  and 
of  inner  spiritual  conceptions,  and  hence,  in  gen- 
eral conversation,  they  stumble  as  they  approach 
the  lines  of  division,  which  separate  these  topics. 
They,  as  Philistines,  are  lively  here  and  dull  there, 
with  a  strange  inability  to  go  beyond  their  own 
haunts.  They  are  untraveled  in  the  world  of 
ideas;  they  have  in  this  spiritual  realm  the  local 
attachments  and  prejudices  of  barbarians. 

Perhaps  it  is  right  that  the  word  Philistinism 
should  settle  down  to  this  narrowness  of  intellec- 
tual life  in  one  of  its  forms, — the  gross  form  in 
which  one  is  wrapped  up  in  sensuous  comforts, 
in  physical  existence,  and  in  its  showy  outside 
symbols.  It  is  also  well,  we  think,  that  the  essen- 
tial affiliation  of  every  form  of  narrowness  with 
every  other  form  should  be  pointed  out,  and  that 
we  should  be  taught  to  widen  our  lives,  not  in 
this  direction  or  in  that  alone,  but  in  all  directions. 

We,  as  Englishmen,  with  the  superadded  lia- 
bilities and  temptations  of  Americans,  are  open  to 
Philistinism.  It  is,  therefore,  worth  our  while  to  in- 
quire how  this  fault  has  arisen,  and  how  it  can  best 
be  removed.  Says  Renan,  quoting  M.  Amiel: 

"  The  era  of  mediocrity  in  all  things  is  about  to  begin. 
Equality  begets  uniformity,  and  it  is  by  the  sacrifice 


234  Philistinism 

of  the  excellent,  the  remarkable,  the  extraordinary, 
that  we  extirpate  what  is  bad.  The  whole  becomes 
less  coarse;  but  the  whole  becomes  more  vulgar." 

Says  Renan  himself: 

"The  world  is  moving  in  the  direction  of  a  kind  of 
Americanism,  which  shocks  our  refined  ideas,  but 
may  not  be  more  inimical  than  the  ancient  regime  to 
the  only  thing,  which  is  of  any  real  importance,  viz. , 
the  emancipation  and  progress  of  the  human  mind." 

Liberty,  popular  liberty,  the  breaking  out  of  the 
people  upward  into  new  rights  and  larger  condi- 
tions of  life,  which  they  have  not  yet  learned  how 
to  fill  or  fully  to  enjoy,  gives  rise  then  to  Philis- 
tinism. Thus  the  colorlessness  of  American  life  is 
one  of  the  things  complained  of.  We  are  in  the 
place  of  men,  it  is  said,  and  have  not  yet  come  up 
to  the  old-time  standard  of  men.  What  the  dilet- 
tante spirit  craves  above  all  things  is  picturesque- 
ness,  and  we,  God  help  us,  are  not  picturesque. 
High  dilettanteism  and  high  humanitarianism 
are  not  as  yet  peaks  in  the  same  range,  and  they 
command  very  different  views.  The  humani- 
tarian is  no  more  satisfied  with  the  picturesque- 
ness  of  the  peasant  and  the  serf,  the  'prentice  and 
the  page,  than  is  the  dilettante  with  the  colorless- 
ness  of  the  American  citizen.  The  one  says,  Give 
me  differences,  give  me  color,  or  I  die.  This 


Philistinism  235 

eternal  sameness  will  suffocate  my  delicate  sense 
of  beauty,  and  I  can  breathe  the  air  of  this  world 
at  best  with  difficulty.  The  other  says,  Thank 
God  these  men  are  marching:  here  is  the  higher 
life  of  the  spirit  feeling  the  warm,  spring  sunlight, 
and  breaking  bud  under  it. 

While  we  despise  as  selfish  conceit  and  inhuman 
twaddle  a  good  deal  that  is  said  about  the  barren- 
ness of  republican  society,  we  yet  recognize  in  it  a 
measure  of  truth,  which  we  shall  do  well  to  consider 
and  to  face.  Liberty  does  break  up  a  certain  kind 
of  order,  and  is  slow  in  putting  a  higher  order  in  its 
place.  It  does  push  men  forward,  when  they  are 
only  partially  prepared  for  their  new  situation. 
The  blacks  of  the  South  were  doubtless  more  pictur- 
esque when  their  cabins  were  gathered  close  under 
the  shadow  of  the  lordly  mansion  of  their  master 
than  they  are  now,  scattered  about  in  independent 
poverty  and  squalor.  Yet  it  is  no  great  thing  to 
say  that  the  humanitarian  sees  far  more  promise  of 
beauty  in  the  later  than  in  the  earlier  arrange- 
ment. Any  other  sentiment  is  a  slave  to  the 
senses,  and  the  senses  alone  cannot  give  beauty. 

English  artisans,  American  farmers,  middle- 
men— English  and  American — are  beginning  to 
fill  the  world's  eye  by  virtue  of  the  advancing 
power  of  industry.  The  streets  and  public 


236  Philistinism 

places  and  assembly-halls  are  for  them,  and 
while  they  wear  less  gilt  and  less  velvet  than  the 
more  fortunate  of  their  predecessors,  they  show 
less  arrogance  and  less  servility  than  they.  They 
are  at  disadvantage  to  the  eye,  an  eye  backed 
up  by  a  heartless  heart.  They  are  also  at  dis- 
advantage, and  this  is  a  real  disadvantage,  in  not 
being  fully  masters  of  the  situation,  in  not  knowing 
altogether  how  to  wear  and  to  use  their  liberties, 
and  how  to  bring  their  manners  and  their  methods 
up  to  the  high  pitch  of  their  opportunities.  They 
are  like  a  smart,  brand  new  brick  dwelling.  It 
may  be  very  comfortable,  but  it  is  without  relief, 
without  history,  and  without  poetry.  It  smacks 
of  the  brickyard,  and  nothing  more.  This  difficulty 
arises,  because  liberty  is  young;  because  she  has 
been  occupied  in  pulling  down,  because  she  has 
herself  built  but  hastily  and  improvisedly.  All  in 
due  time,  gentlemen.  The  spiritual  world  is  not 
made  in  a  day,  any  more  than  the  physical  one. 

The  second  reason,  closely  associated  with  the 
first  reason,  and  more  at  fault  than  it  for  this 
Philistinism,  is  the  eager,  absorbing  pursuit  of 
wealth,  which  characterizes  this  new  era.  The 
power  of  wealth  and  the  pursuit  of  wealth  have 
had  much  to  do  with  promoting  liberty,  and  yet 
when  the  possession  of  wealth  is  pushed  forward 


Philistinism  237 

as  the  chief  social  distinction,  it  suffers  disparage- 
ment as  compared  even  with  those  physical  but 
more  personal  characteristics,  that  family  eminence 
and  those  aptitudes,  which  preceded  it.  Wealth 
makes  one  conspicuous  on  the  stage  of  life,  but  by 
no  means  implies  the  qualities,  which  adorn  that 
stage.  It  may  easily  be  the  unfortunate  pedes- 
tal, which  lifts  up  clumsy  and  clownish  character. 
Probably  no  one  temper  is  more  directly  pro- 
ductive of  Philistinism,  is  more  identified  with 
it,  than  the  absorbing  pursuit  of  wealth.  The 
range  of  vision  is  greatly  narrowed  by  it;  con- 
ceit springs  up  within  these  close  limits,  and 
gross  insensibility  and  ignorance  come  to  charac- 
terize the  individual  and  society  beyond  their 
own  immediate  enterprise.  The  advantages  won 
are  largely  wasted  from  the  want  of  any  proper 
method  of  improvement,  and  the  boasted  gain  of 
this  new  era  becomes  a  coarse  materiality,  spiced 
with  vice,  and  sinking  into  dullness,  discontent, 
and  dissoluteness;  dullness  and  dissoluteness,  the 
only  relief  from  discontent. 

It  has  been  said  that  this  Philistinism  belongs 
especially  to  the  past  and  the  present  century, 
and  that  these  two  centuries  are  the  domain  of 
the  purely  industrial  temper.  More  material  has 
been  dug  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  has  been 


238  Philistinism 

raised  on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  has  been  ground 
and  hammered  and  woven  into  shape  in  the  face  of 
day  in  these  centuries  than  in  any  previous  half 
dozen  centuries.  And  all  for  Philistinism?  Yes 
and  no.  Yes  first,  and  no  afterwards.  When 
we  have  wearied  ourselves  sufficiently  with  this 
crass  materialism;  when  we  have  found  out  how 
much  and  how  little  food  and  clothing  and  houses 
and  equipage  can  do  for  us,  the  restless  spirit  of 
man  will  make  ready  for  another  stage  of  growth, 
will  make  its  gains  the  soil  for  new  seeds.  Thus 
the  mosses  displace  the  lichens  on  the  rock,  and 
the  ferns,  the  mosses,  and  the  flowers,  the  ferns, 
and  the  forest,  the  flowers.  The  pursuit  of  wealth, 
which  is  a  first  stage  in  human  liberty,  has  de- 
veloped an  intense  activity,  which  it  alone  cannot 
reward ;  and  has  spread  far  and  wide  a  civilization 
which  it  alone  cannot  sustain  and  justify.  Here, 
we  may  well  be  with  the  critics,  Heine,  or  Arnold. 
These  roots  of  industry  are  like  the  clover  crop, 
which  we  plow  under.  They  must  decay  in  the 
soil  to  make  it  truly  fertile  for  further  production. 
Another  reason  of  this  bad  temper  is  a  weak- 
ening of  faith.  Nothing  so  narrows  the  human 
spirit  as  to  lose  hold  of  the  spiritual.  It  is  then 
given  over,  body  and  soul,  to  the  devil,  to  physi- 
cal well-being,  to  the  shortsighted  opinions  of 


Philistinism  239 

Philistinism.  It  has  no  currency  but  a  copper 
currency  of  custom  and  conventional  opinion, 
purchasing  nothing  save  childish  toys  at  the 
Huckster's  stands  in  its  own  market.  If  the 
English  drop  into  dullness  on  religious  topics,  it  is 
because  they  have  no  thoughts,  no  experiences,  no 
gleams  of  light  on  the  horizon  in  this  direction; 
because  they  are  children  in  faith .  Nothing  makes 
the  world  more  monotonous  than  a  low,  gray  sky, 
which  shuts  out  the  heavens;  nothing  so  takes 
light  and  change  from  the  landscape  of  life  as  a 
loss  of  spiritual  incentives  and  a  spiritual  out- 
look. Why  is  man  upright,  but  that  he  may  see 
both  earth  and  heaven ;  the  earth  illumined  by  the 
heavens,  and  the  heavens  beneficently  enfolding 
the  earth  and  ruling  over  it  with  light  and  dark- 
ness, heat  and  cold,  shower,  sunshine,  and  storm? 
When  the  common  mind  loses  faith,  it  is  made 
fearfully  commonplace,  fearfully  groveling  and 
brutal  in  its  tendencies. 

Picturesque!  I  know  nothing  so  utterly  un- 
picturesque  as  what  is  termed  Young  America, — 
willful,  impudent,  the  mouth  the  ingress  of  tobacco 
and  the  egress  of  oaths; — the  devil's  caricature  of 
manhood,  as  the  monkey  is  the  most  cynical 
witticism  in  nature.  I  do  not  say  nor  believe 
that  these  two  centuries  of  Philistinism  have  had 


240  Philistinism 

less  faith  as  a  whole  than  previous  ones,  but  there 
has  been  in  them  a  great  breaking  in  on  the 
traditional  forms  of  faith,  on  its  manifest,  pictur- 
esque presentations,  and  we  are  choked  with  the 
dust  of  pulling  down,  the  old,  gritty  lime-dust, 
irritating  every  sense,  defiling  the  whole  body. 
The  customs  of  life  are  broken  up  by  this  re- 
laxation of  faith,  with  present  loss,  though,  we 
trust,  with  future  gain.  For  the  moment,  the 
forms  of  our  manhood  appear  to  as  little  advan- 
tage as  does  our  domestic  furniture  on  the  move, 
upside  down,  sidewise,  endwise,  and  upright,  un- 
covered where  it  should  be  covered,  and  covered 
where  it  should  be  uncovered.  We  are  on  the 
move  in  the  spiritual  world,  and  we  are  just 
discovering  what  a  miserable  lot  of  old  traps  the 
years  have  accumulated  for  us.  We  thought  but 
little  about  them  when  they  were  in  their  own 
place  or  out  of  sight.  Now,  that  we  are  break- 
ing our  shins  over  them,  they  may  easily  seem 
the  most  forlorn,  unpresentable  lot  of  goods 
that  ever  stood  in  sunlight.  This  is  the  sort  of 
impression  that  a  group  of  young  men  at  the 
street  corner,  half  foreign,  half  American,  and 
wholly  unchristian,  make  on  one  at  first  glance. 
These  are  the  spawn  of  the  lowest  species  of 
Philistinism.  They  covet  wealth,  but  have  no 


Philistinism  241 

energy  to  win  it;  they  are  hunting  for  open  doors 
to  the  gross  indulgences,  which  wealth  is  thought  to 
supply,  and  they  suffer  restraint  neither  from  the 
sentiments  of  faith  nor  from  the  decencies  of  so- 
ciety. Have  courage !  There  is  always  in  the  best 
home  something  to  be  burned,  and  this  is  probably 
it.  There  is  also  always  something  to  be  saved,  and 
never  more  than  in  our  time — an  earnest,  active 
time,  in  which  we  are  not  so  much  settling  down  to 
the  enjoyments  the  past  has  won  for  us,  as  we  are 
making  ready  for  the  better  things  of  the  future. 

This  charge  of  Philistinism  is  a  very  valid  and  a 
very  grave  charge.  We  need  to  call  a  council  of  the 
wise  and  the  good  that  we  may  see  how  to  cast  it 
off;  how  to  go  forward  without  going  backward. 
We  have  no  occasion  as  yet  to  quarter  the  crab  on 
our  coat  of  arms ;  there  is  a  cloud  of  fire  at  the  head 
of  our  ranks  that  will  give  more  illumination  to 
darkness  than  ordinarily  falls  to  daylight.  We 
turn  to  some  of  the  remedies  of  Philistinism. 

The  first  of  these  is  more  liberty;  liberty  alone 
can  cure  the  evils  of  liberty;  it  is  life  only  that 
heals  life,  and  progress  that  gives  the  conditions  of 
progress.  We  are  not  to  belong  to  those  timid, 
stationary  souls,  who  grow  frightened  at  once  when 
the  doors  are  burst  open,  and  the  winds  rush  in,  and 
the  ashes  on  the  hearthstone  are  scattered.  It 

16 


242  Philistinism 

is  ever  these  periods  of  change,  and  destruction 
even,  that  are  truly  productive  in  the  world's 
history.  Free  institutions  break  down  and  oblit- 
erate the  strong  divisions  of  society,  and  yet  in 
the  end,  they  increase  diversity  and  enlarge  life. 
Distinctions  that  catch  the  eye  at  once,  like  a 
military  coat,  or  the  symbols  of  a  clique,  are  lost, 
but  in  their  places  come  all  these  less  apparent  but 
more  real  differences,  which  attend  on  living  things 
when  left  to  follow  freely  the  bent  of  their  own 
natures.  The  colors  of  a  cheap  print  are  strong  and 
sharply  defined ;  those  of  high  art  pass  into  one  an- 
other by  many  insensible  gradations.  The  classes 
and  castes  of  a  community,  in  which  customs  have 
grown  into  tyrannies,  are  very  gross  divisions, 
and  all  the  more  gross  as  they  are  insurmountable. 
Where  these  are  broken  down,  and  men  begin  to 
flow  together  under  vital  impulses  simply,  a  little 
is  lost  to  the  outer  eye  of  the  body,  and  much  is 
gained  for  the  inner  eye  of  the  mind.  Men  sink 
and  rise  once  more  freely,  according  to  the  force  of 
the  life  that  is  in  them ;  and  we  have  vital  motion  in 
place  of  mechanical  motion,  inner  strength  for 
outward  order.  It  takes  more  thought,  more 
human  sympathy,  more  divine  love  to  penetrate 
and  to  enjoy  the  second  phase  than  the  first,  but, 
intrinsically,  it  is  incomparably  higher,  better,  and 


Philistinism  243 

more  beautiful.  There  is  one  fact  that,  for  a  time 
at  least,  is  at  war  with  these  intrinsic  diversities 
of  individual  life  and  disguises  them,  and  that  is 
public  opinion.  Public  opinion  gets  immense 
sweep  in  free  institutions.  It  is  like  a  cold  wave, 
which  comes  driving  down  from  northern  plains,  or 
a  sirocco  laden  with  the  burning  heat  of  a  great 
desert.  Yet  opinion  has  less  force,  after  all,  in  a 
free  community  than  in  one  in  any  way  in  bondage. 
The  intensity  of  sentiment  in  a  region  in  which 
slavery  exists  finds  no  counterpart  in  more  for- 
tunate states.  The  currents  are  stronger,  more 
rapid,  more  dangerous  in  connection  with  arbi- 
trary institutions,  only  they  are  also  more  divided 
and  more  restricted.  Public  opinion  in  the  United 
States,  in  spite  of  all  that  is  said  to  the  contrary, 
leaves  individual  thought  less  touched  and  less  con- 
strained than  anywhere  else  in  the  world.  It  has 
the  long  heavy  swells  of  the  open  sea,  but  its  waves 
are  easily  ridden,  far  more  easily  than  the  short, 
chopping,  conflicting  billows  of  narrow  seas.  And 
this  liberty  in,  with,  and  under  public  opinion  is  on 
the  increase.  One  more  and  more  feels  that  he  has 
to  do  with  great  forces,  but  is  in  no  way  controlled 
by  them  nor  afraid  of  them.  Sound  opinion  and 
just  sentiment  meet  nowhere  with  less  obstruction, 
are  nowhere  more  potent  powers,  than  in  America. 


244  Philistinism 

Those  on  whom  our  society  makes  a  different  im- 
pression are  misled  by  their  senses,  have  not  yet 
penetrated  to  its  very  center  and  to  its  real  spirit. 
The  first  clash  of  it,  like  the  rush  of  a  wave  on  the 
shore,  may  seem  to  be  all  in  one  direction,  and  to 
be  full  of  brute  force,  but  wider  experience  shows 
one  that  never  were  more,  or  more  diver  sifted, 
or  more  immediate,  or  more  remote  influences,  or 
more  palpable,  or  more  delicate  ones  at  work  on 
society,  than  on  this  immense,  popular  life  of  ours. 
Its  Philistinism  is  superficial  and  changeable;  its 
pliability  to  all  the  forces  at  play  on  earth  or  in  air 
is  profound  and  permanent.  Liberty  is  fluidity  in 
the  spiritual  world,  is  sensitivity  to  change  of 
every  degree  and  variety.  The  insensibility  to 
be  feared  is  that  which  arises  from  institutions 
too  strong  for  those  who  live  under  them — 
institutions  that  hold  them  close-bound  as  a 
canyon  holds  a  river.  The  Chinese  are  Philis- 
tines, only  we  do  not  easily  associate  the  word 
with  such  feebleness.  Liberty  will  purify  itself, 
like  a  boiling  fluid,  by  its  own  motion,  and  that, 
too,  increasingly. 

Our  second  remedy  is  liberal  education.  Edu- 
cation is  directly  antithetic  to  Philistinism  in  the 
degree  in  which  it  is  liberal ;  that  is,  diversified  and 
thorough.  Philistinism  does  not  mean  ignorance, 


Philistinism  245 

but  it  means  narrow  knowledge  with  all  the  in- 
difference and  contempt,  the  sharp  lines  of  light 
and  darkness  that  go  with  it.  Philistinism  is 
artificial  light — the  light  of  a  bonfire,  with  an 
immense  preponderance  of  impenetrable  shadows. 
Liberal  education  is  daylight,  opening  up  all 
spaces  and  enveloping  all  things.  One  is  led 
in  this  connection  to  look  with  some  suspicion 
and  apprehension  on  the  decided  tendency  with 
us  to  specialize  instruction,  and  to  give  it  an  in- 
dustrial type.  While  this  movement  is  very 
admirable,  if  we  add  it  to  a  liberal  education,  it  is 
very  inadmissible,  if  we  displace  with  it  a  liberal 
education  in  our  collegiate  institutions,  and  the 
first  terms  of  knowledge  in  our  primary  schools. 
This  is  at  once  to  narrow  in  life,  and  to  substitute 
deep,  straight,  artificial  channels  for  broad, 
changeable,  natural  streams.  This  is  to  educate 
men  for  a  given  place  in  society,  and  so  to  deepen 
its  divisions  and  to  increase  its  immobility,  instead 
of  to  win  life  for  each  and  all,  and  the  liberty  of 
life.  It  is  to  lay  more  stress  on  the  immediate 
conditions,  which  meet  men,  than  on  men  them- 
selves. There  is  a  direct,  practical  cast  to  this 
method,  which  gives  it  much  favor  with  a  certain 
class  of  minds  but  these  minds  are  essentially 
of  a  Philistine  order, — minds  that  see  sharply 


246  Philistinism 

the  things  nearest  them,  and  scarcely  at  all  the 
things  more  remote,  minds  that  shape  their  means 
so  narrowly  to  their  ends  as  to  endanger  the 
ends  themselves.  The  body  is  more  than  rai- 
ment and  the  life  is  more  than  meat,  is  the 
principle,  which  should  govern  us  in  education, 
if  we  wish  to  make  education  play  its  true  part, 
to  open  wide  before  us  the  two-leaved  doors 
of  the  universe,  and  not  simply  to  give  us  the 
key  to  one  of  its  workshops.  As  things  now 
are,  not  only  does  a  university  send  up  a  smoke- 
stack, as  black  and  as  high  as  that  of  a  factory,  it 
is  ready  to  express  its  efficiency  as  so  many  horse- 
power, and  is  liable  to  express  its  productions 
as  so  many  marketable  wares,  so  many  workmen 
each  with  his  trade-mark,  still  called,  in  deference 
to  the  past,  a  diploma.  Enlargement  of  thought, 
enlargement  of  life  is  the  primary  purpose  of 
education;  education  to  which  success  in  specific 
undertakings  is  to  be  subordinated.  We  are  to 
make  men,  and  so  to  make  society ;  we  are  not  to 
make  society,  and  then  to  fit  men  into  it  as  stones 
in  a  wall.  The  immediate  losses  of  the  one  me- 
thod are  more  than  made  up  by  its  ultimate  gains ; 
the  immediate  gains  of  the  other  method  are 
more  than  compensated  by  its  ultimate  losses. 
We  find  at  once  a  place  for  a  poor  stone  by  the  one 


Philistinism  247 

device;  we  find  good  stones  for  any  wall  by  the 
other. 

One  of  our  educating  forces,  that  of  the  public 
press,  very  readily  leads  to  Philistinism.  Philis- 
tinism is  a  lack  of  perspective;  an  inability  to 
place  objects  in  position  and  size  according  to 
their  true  value;  a  huddling  of  near  objects 
promiscuously  about  the  observer,  and  a  loss  of 
remote  ones.  This  is  very  much  the  method  of  a 
great  daily,  a  Chicago  newspaper.  It  is  a  big 
thing,  but  like  the  kitchen-middens  of  prehistoric 
times,  it  is  more  remarkable  for  the  amount  it 
contains  than  for  what  it  contains.  Such  a  paper 
is  without  proportion,  without  perspective, 
without  relation,  and  without  law.  The  things 
that  are  near  to  its  readers  in  place,  or  akin  to 
them  in  tastes,  are  multiplied  and  exaggerated 
with  no  reference  to  their  intrinsic  or  to  their 
permanent  value.  The  things  remote  in  either  of 
these  particulars  are  a  vanishing  quantity.  The 
one  thing  such  a  paper  does  do  is  to  impress  with 
double  force  on  the  mind  the  visible  and  the 
transient ;  the  thing  it  ever  fails  to  do  is  to  open 
any  door  into  the  region  of  thoughtful,  emotional, 
spiritual  life.  The  opinions  expressed  in  it,  like 
the  facts  gathered  in  it,  are  of  the  earth,  earthy. 
One  who  reads  the  morning  paper  with  his  break- 


248  Philistinism 

fast,  catches  a  lunch  in  the  hours  of  active  business, 
eats  his  dinner  with  the  evening  paper,  and  follows 
it  with  a  cigar,  must  more  and  more,  even  when 
naturally  gifted  with  universality  of  thought  and 
breadth  of  knowledge,  acquire  the  temper  of  a 
Philistine.  His  mind  must  become  like  a  dusty 
thoroughfare,  pounded  backward  and  forward 
to  pulverization  by  every  wheel  of  traffic,  but 
having  nowhere  the  shade  of  forest,  nor  bearing 
anywhere  the  scent  of  flowers.  One,  who  is  to  be 
broad,  and  catholic,  and  open  in  feeling  to  the 
universe  of  God,  must  feed  on  other  food  than 
that  offered  by  the  daily  press — a  press  that  not 
only  perverts  the  world  by  its  partial  method  of 
presentation,  but  often  perverts  it  still  further  by 
the  strong  bias,  under  which  it  conceives  it  for  its 
own  personal  and  political  ends.  Sober,  thought- 
ful, spiritual  journalism  seems  as  yet  almost  a 
contradiction  in  terms. 

But  the  best  possible,  the  highest  possible  cor- 
rection of  Philistinism  is  found  in  more  faith — 
a  purer,  more  pervasive,  more  spiritual  insight. 
I  know  of  no  Philistinism  of  a  more  positive 
and  unmitigated  order  than  its  sceptical  form. 
He  is  a  Philistine,  indeed,  who  holds  the  holy 
land,  the  promised  land  of  the  race,  for  unholy 
and  sensuous,  if  not  sensual  ends.  Even  science, 


Philistinism  249 

far  as  it  leads  us  away  from  Philistinism  in  one 
direction,  may  harbor  this  spirit  in  another,  when 
it  becomes  dogmatic  in  its  methods,  narrow, 
positive,  and  final  in  its  conclusions.  For  every 
door  it  opens,  it  then  closes  another  and  more 
important  one;  for  every  view  it  presents,  it  turns 
the  back  on  a  grander  one.  If  it  tells  us  much 
about  matter,  it  tells  us  little  about  mind.  If  it 
gives  new  glory  to  the  visible,  it  hides  the  glory 
of  the  invisible. 

For  one,  I  thoroughly  believe  that  faith — the 
activity  of  the  mind  toward  the  personal,  the 
rational  element  that  pervades  the  universe — is 
the  one  antagonistic  force  to  that  limited  vision, 
that  narrow  sensitivity,  which  in  all  extreme  forms 
is  stigmatized  as  Philistinism.  Nothing  so  broad- 
ens, so  enriches,  so  diversifies,  and  so  beautifies  the 
life  as  faith.  Nothing  so  narrows  it,  and  so  leaves 
it  at  work  on  the  mere  symbols  of  existence,  as  the 
want  of  faith.  Mathematics  have  an  unapproach- 
able breadth  of  application,  yet  no  mind  is  drier  or 
more  quickly  filled  with  cobwebs  than  that  of 
the  mathematician,  who  confines  his  attention  to 
mathematical  processes,  and  who  plies  the  busy 
shuttle  of  thought  exclusively  between  the  two 
terms  of  an  equation. 

This  opinion  is  so  much  opposed  to  the  ordinary 


250  Philistinism 

view,  that  I  wish  to  enforce  it.  The  three  chief 
directions  in  which  the  world  opens  upward  and 
outward,  until  we  are  made  to  feel  that  the  physi- 
cal point  which  we  now  occupy  is  but  a  tower  of 
observation  on  a  commanding  eminence,  from 
which  we  are  shown  by  the  spirit  of  light  the  real 
kingdoms  of  the  world,  are  science,  religion,  and 
art.  If  we  turn  to  the  first  of  these,  science,  we  are 
greatly  helped  and  profoundly  instructed  by  it 
in  the  degree  in  which  we  allow  it  to  lay  open  to  us 
invisible  terms, — so  far  as  our  senses  are  con- 
cerned,— inscrutable  terms  in  the  world  about  us. 
The  forces,  which  weave  the  phenomenal  world 
together,  which  make  it  what  it  is  in  its  sensible 
qualities  by  virtue  of  an  intense,  constant,  vari- 
able activity,  as  the  boy  shapes  his  ribbon  of 
flame  by  the  rapid  revolution  of  his  fire-brand, 
these  forces  are,  in  their  impalpable  character,  al- 
most of  a  spiritual  order.  The  life,  which  science 
discloses,  yet  fails  to  disclose  in  all  organic  things, 
is  another  factor  of  still  greater  spirituality,  and 
leads  us  by  an  easy  ascent  of  thought  to  the  spirit 
of  man, — a  term  so  intimate  to  us,  and  yet  so  far 
from  us,  if  we  undertake  to  put  upon  it  any  sensi- 
ble expression  or  measurement.  By  these  rounds 
we  climb  higher.  Science  leads  us  to  that  still 
more  pervasive,  far  more  deeply  implanted 


Philistinism  251 

power  by  which  the  universe  as  a  whole  is  borne 
forward  in  orderly  growth,  and  in  the  wonderful 
evolution  of  creation.  Here  we  see  reason — well 
ordered  relations  and  progressive  combinations — 
planted  in  the  center  of  all  movement.  Now 
science  enlarges  our  thought,  and  deepens  our 
sensibilities  in  the  degree  in  which  we  accept  these 
its  invisible  terms,  and  deal  with  them  wisely 
in  their  plain,  empirical  method  of  presentation. 
We  thus  start  with  the  true  equation  of  thought, 
with  its  known  and  unknown  terms ;  the  one  made, 
more  and  more,  to  measure  and  to  express  the  other. 
Nothing  tends  to  superficiality  more  inevitably 
than  to  reverse  this  method,  to  make  the  symbol 
all,  the  phenomena  all;  to  put  nature  in  place  of 
life,  sensations  for  the  soul  of  man,  and  combina- 
tion as  an  external  factor  for  God.  This  is  to 
dimple  the  surface  of  the  pool  like  a  water-fly,  and 
to  know  nothing  of  that  above  it  or  below  it. 

But  if  we  allow  science  to  lead  us  within  the 
portals  of  the  unseen,  she  is  then  compelled  to 
yield  her  guidance  to  religion.  This  is  the  office 
of  religious  thought,  to  furnish  the  rational  clues, 
the  wide,  profound,  underlying  grounds  of  the 
visible  present,  of  the  past  already  invisible,  of 
the  future, — nearer  to  us  than  either  the  past  or 
the  present— the  future,  which  has  not  yet  taken 


252  Philistinism 

form,  and  so  we  are  wont  to  think  may  take  the 
very  form  of  our  hopes.  However  much  religion 
may,  as  a  fact,  in  a  dogmatic  and  unauthorized 
way,  while  opening,  at  the  same  time  close  the 
life  of  the  spirit  in  its  principles,  aspirations,  and 
promises,  nothing  is  plainer  than  that  religion 
properly  stands  for  wide  thought,  the  very  widest, 
for  deep  sensibility,  the  very  deepest,  and  thus 
is  eternally  opposed  to  any  narrow  limits,  which 
may  be  laid  down  for  the  mind,  or  to  any  precon- 
ceived impressions,  which  may  be  thrust  upon  it. 
Our  thoughts  thus  cease  to  be  even  the  gold  coin 
of  currency,  stamped  for  trade  in  a  narrow  terri- 
tory, and  are  constantly  passing  back  into  pure 
bullion,  open  to  all  service  and  to  all  ornament. 

Religion  is  breaking  bounds  in  thought,  is 
claiming  and  winning  the  freedom  of  the  Universe 
of  God,  is  that  inner  force  of  the  soul,  which  makes 
one  not  the  accident  of  an  hour,  but  the  heir  of 
all  things.  It  is  this  intangibility  and  emotional 
fullness  of  religious  life  that  allies  it  to  art,  and 
puts  it  at  one  with  beauty — in  some  sense  the 
most  direct  and  buoyant  ascent  of  the  soul  up- 
ward. Let  me  justify  this  last  assertion. 

Beauty  is  capable  of  a  very  partial  treatment, 
and  it  is  equally  capable  of  a  very  wide  and  uni- 
versal application..  Beancy  is  perfection  of  form, 


Philistinism  253 

and  may  accompany  any  manifestation  of  any 
high  order  whatever.  The  greater  the  controlling 
impulse — the  included  life — the  more  complete 
may  be  the  beautiful  form,  which  embodies  and 
presents  it.  Thus  the  human  body  is  capable  of  a 
perfection  transcending  all  visible  things,  and  this 
perfection  is  proportioned  to  the  strength,  nobil- 
ity, and  purity  of  the  character  it  equips  and  dis- 
closes. Strength  and  beauty  are  in  the  sanctuary 
of  God,  and  beauty  because  of  strength.  There  is 
nothing  inherently  good  and  admirable  that  has 
not  a  divine  claim  for  that  perfect  form  which 
makes  it  beautiful.  Beauty  is  the  richly  woven 
robe,  which  waits  to  be  cast  on  the  shoulders  of  all 
who  have  the  vigor  and  the  grace  to  wear  it. 
Beauty,  therefore,  rests  nowhere  more  reposefully, 
nowhere  breathes  more  fragrance  than  when  it  en- 
closes as  bodily  presence,  as  conduct,  as  speech 
a  pure  spirit  in  its  purity.  Beauty  is  thus  in  one 
direction  the  perfection  of  holiness,  and  in  the 
degree,  in  which  we  apprehend  the  inner  harmony 
of  the  divine  life  of  the  soul,  and  its  outer  fullness 
of  expression,  shall  we  understand  the  beauty  of 
holiness. 

Though  religion  has  often  been  very  narrow  and 
art  has  often  been  very  narrow,  they  have  again 
and  again  walked  hand  in  hand,  and  they  never 


254  Philistinism 

fall  apart  except  through  mutual  error  and  loss. 
Nothing  so  deepens  and  broadens  life  as  pure  faith. 
Indeed,  faith  is  the  faculty  of  putting  the  unseen, 
the  personal,  the  eternal  principles  of  reason 
back  of  the  seen,  and  so  informing  the  visible  with 
that  significant  power,  which  makes  it  beautiful. 
Beauty  can  no  more  dispense  with  the  unseen  than 
religion,  since  it  is  the  seen  in  its  relation  to  the 
unseen,  form  as  the  language  of  spirit,  which  defines 
beauty.  Religion,  true,  inner  faith,  as  nourishing 
the  broadest,  best,  most  pervasive,  and  purest 
impulses,  becomes  the  very  soul  of  beauty,  a 
beauty  that  gives  to  man's  spirit  wings,  bears  it 
everywhere,  enables  it  to  rise  and  to  sing  with  over- 
flowing life  in  the  clear  sky,  or  to  rest  quietly 
in  thought  on  any  rock  or  spray  the  eye  falls 
upon. 

Faith  is  misconceived,  or  beauty  is  miscon- 
ceived, when  they  are  torn  asunder,  for  faith  can 
abide  in  beauty  as  easily  and  as  fittingly  as  the 
soul  of  man  in  his  perfected  body.  Nothing  will 
bring  so  full  a  redemption  from  Philistinism  as 
the  pervasive  life  of  faith.  One  especial  reason 
why  Philistinism  becomes  so  apparent  is,  that 
our  physical  life  is  in  advance  of  our  intellectual 
life,  our  intellectual  life,  of  our  spiritual  life. 

One  enters  a  large,  elegant  hotel  or  public  hall. 


Philistinism  255 

He  is  surrounded  on  all  sides  with  objects  of 
luxury  and  art.  The  coarse  uses  to  which  they  are 
put,  the  neglect  and  abuse  they  suffer,  make  a 
correspondingly  painful  impression  of  the  want 
of  refinement  and  sensitivity.  These  dumb  things, 
trodden  on  and  spit  upon,  cry  out  against  the 
vulgarity  of  our  lives.  We  do  not  refine  the  things 
which  we  handle  nor  do  we,  as  skillful  workmen, 
turn  them  to  highest  uses,  but  we  mar  their  re- 
finement and  are  rebuked  by  these  our  servants. 
The  shrewd  intelligence  of  our  business  life,  sharp 
in  judgment,  prompt  in  action,  lapses  into  igno- 
rance and  indolence  and  stolidity  in  the  presence  of 
those  social  and  spiritual  problems,  which  the 
world  has  been  propounding  from  the  beginning 
of  time. 

The  Philistine  of  old  mounted  his  iron  chariot 
and  rode  rough-shod  and  defiant  over  the  hills  of 
Palestine  until  some  bolt  of  heaven  struck  him,  and 
then  he  fell  and  perished  where  he  fell,  earth  to 
earth,  dust  to  dust. 

With  the  not  unreasonable  enlargement  we  have 
put  upon  the  word,  Philistinism  is  the  disease  of 
a  life  whose  channels  are  overladen  with  gross 
blood — a  life  that  cannot  aerify  or  oxygenate  the 
material  at  its  disposal;  varying  the  figure,  that 
cannot,  like  a  thrifty  tree,  shoot  up  into  a  strength 


256  Philistinism 

and  vigor  proportioned  to  the  fertility  of  the  soil 
in  which  it  stands.  Like  a  too  succulent  plant,  it 
does  not  ripen  its  wood,  it  is  blighted  by  its  own 
sap,  and  is  blasted  in  its  own  greenness.  This  is 
the  pressing  danger  of  our  time  and  of  our  country. 
Our  young  men  are  open,  on  the  one  side,  to  the 
debauchment,  profligacy,  and  vulgarity  of  irre- 
sponsible wealth;  and  on  the  other,  to  the  mean 
and  feeble  temper,  which  covets  this  wealth  with 
an  indisposition  to  make  honest  payment  in  use- 
ful industry.  The  ladder  is  planted ;  we  are  ready 
to  climb  into  a  higher,  more  intellectual,  more 
sympathetic,  more  spiritual  region,  but  our  hands 
lose  their  grip,  our  feet  stumble,  and  we  fall 
bruised  and  helpless  at  the  very  foot  of  the  as- 
cent to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  This  is  Philis- 
tinism ;  full  of  blood  and  of  rank  appetite  and  yet 
of  light  digestion;  with  strong  passion,  and  slight 
touch  of  human  sympathy;  with  sharp  sight,  and 
no  range  of  vision;  the  body  sensitive,  and  the 
soul  a  torpid  creature  which  will  not  grow  into 
and  by  the  light  that  God  lets  fall  upon  it.  The 
remedy  of  this  is  a  body  purged  of  glut  and 
grossness  by  temperance  and  industry;  a  mind 
awakened  to  truth  in  its  broad,  universal  range ;  a 
heart  touched  by  the  spirit  of  a  divine  life  that  has 
been  for  Jong  in  the  world,  and  is  slowly  building 


Philistinism  257 

it,  by  persons,  by  households,  by  nations,  into  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  To  see  this  Kingdom  is  to 
see  all  things  lifted,  and  ourselves  to  be  lifted, 
above  every  gross  use  and  narrow  end. 


17 


WHAT  IS  THE  WORLD'S  PURPOSE? 


T^HE  following  article  is  an  interpretation  of 
•*•  nature  rather  than  of  revelation.  What  the 
world  is,  looked  at  in  its  own  relations,  is  a  rea- 
sonable inquiry.  We  are  quite  at  liberty  to  ask 
what  seems  to  be  its  purpose.  It  is  fundamental 
in  our  knowledge  of  the  world  to  know  what  is 
its  general  drift.  This  "inquiry  by  no  means  sets 
aside  the  Bible.  It  simply  draws  attention  to 
those  prior  relations  which  give  significance  to  the 
Bible.  It  does  not  so  much  regard  the  world  as 
expounded  by  the  Bible  as  it  looks  upon  the  Bible 
as  the  latest  product  of  the  world  and  expressing 
the  form  which  its  history  has  taken.  The  Bible 
is  in  the  world  as  a  means  of  growth.  It  helps 
to  disclose  its  light  and  to  usher  in  the  perfect  day. 
The  Bible  shows  the  significancy  of  the  world  and 
helps  to  reveal  and  to  unite  its  terms  of  knowledge. 
We  may  study  the  world  in  connection  with  the 
Bible,  or  we  may  study  it  for  what  it  seems  to  be 
in  itself.  If  our  study  is  sincere  and  successful, 

258 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose?   259 

the  Bible  will  help  to  expound  the  world  and  the 
world  to  explain  the  Bible,  and  the  two  will  aid 
each  other  in  placing  before  us  their  common  pro- 
blem: What  do  the  things  about  us  mean? 

We  suppose  the  fundamental  fact  of  the  world, 
its  chief  feature,  to  be  evolution,  growth  upward 
in  all  gainful  things.  Evolution  is  not  simply  a 
mechanical  change,  a  coherence  of  physical  things ; 
but  a  progress  in  all  truth,  a  disclosure  which  is 
both  physical  and  spiritual.  Like  all  knowledge, 
it  involves  the  character  in  which  it  is  written  and 
the  idea  which  gives  significance  to  that  character. 
Evolution  is  contained  in  history  and  becomes, 
as  that  history  is  studied,  more  and  more  present 
to  the  minds  of  men.  Recent  years  have  given 
it  primarily  a  physical  meaning.  In  this  there  has 
been  great  loss  and  great  gain.  We  have  learned 
better  to  understand  the  steps  by  which  the  move- 
ment has  proceeded,  while  at  the  same  time  we 
have  been  led  to  overlook  the  ideas  which  lie  at  the 
bottom  of  it,  and  which  give  it  significancy.  We 
wish  to  speak  of  an  evolution  not  simply  physical, 
but  spiritual  also;  not  merely  spiritual,  but  one 
that  has  drawn  the  lower  world  into  its  current 
and  has  left  everywhere  its  traces  upon  it.  Each 
succeeding  step  in  evolution  helps  to  expound  each 
preceding  one,  and  helps  us  to  reach  the  assurance 


260    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose? 

that  the  universe  faces  both  upward  and  down- 
ward and  is  endowed  with  a  double  vitality. 

Man  stands  midway  between  physical  and 
spiritual  evolution,  the  highest  product  of  the  one, 
and  the  lowest  product  of  the  other.  He  is  the 
paragon  of  animals  and  the  finishing  term  in  the 
wonderful  procession  of  living  things.  Delicate 
in  structure,  upright  in  stature,  with  the  full  com- 
plement of  senses  and  at  the  same  time  possessed 
with  a  complete  circle  of  intuitions,  he  commands 
not  only  the  things  beneath  him  but  also  the  things 
above  and  beyond  him.  With  a  narrow  physical 
basis  and  a  full  stature,  in  firmness  of  position  and 
in  velocity  of  change,  he  offers  adequate  resistance 
to  attack  and  stands  with  his  added  intellectual 
endowments  supreme  among  animals.  He  alone 
can  enter  into  possession  and  full  enjoyment  of 
the  spiritual  world.  Favor  as  we  will  the 
powers  of  animals,  they  only  reach  the  nearest 
bounds  of  spiritual  things  and  have  in  them  no 
inheritance.  Man  in  aesthetic  and  poetic  appre- 
hension takes  to  himself  the  pleasures  of  a  spiritual 
world,  and  by  obedience  to  the  law  of  duty  enters 
into  its  high  rewards.  If  the  animal  by  association 
stands  at  the  porch  of  the  temple,  he  tarries  there 
and  knows  nothing  of  the  grandeur  and  solemnity 
of  the  edifice  itself.  Evolution  either  comes  to  an 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose?    261 

abrupt  end  in  man,  or  takes  on  a  wholly  new  phase 
in  personal  and  social  development ;  a  fresh  lease 
of  life,  a  true  hold  of  eternity.  Evolution,  as  a 
doctrine,  accepts  its  proper  significance  by  this  ex- 
tension into  the  spiritual  world.  We  cease  at 
once  to  be  enclosed  and  to  be  smothered  in  physical 
things.  Evolution  in  its  lower  meaning  reaches 
up  to  evolution  in  its  higher,  and  we  have  not 
merely  a  progress  of  events,  but  also  of  the  ideas 
which  underlie  it.  The  means  of  expression  and 
the  expression  are  arrived  at  in  one  process. 

The  question,  which  our  narrow  vision  raises 
for  us,  the  question,  which  brings  to  us  perplexity 
and  doubt,  is  whether  the  present  consummation 
could  not  be  reached  more  rapidly,  whether  the 
Creator  could  not  lift  us  to  high  spiritual  ground 
and  push  us  forward  on  it  with  more  certainty. 
This  inquiry  reaches  us  every  hour.  The  universe 
as  we  know  it  is  built  on  principles  of.  development, 
is  everywhere  the  product  of  growth.  Growth  is 
the  ruling  idea.  In  our  indolence  and  at  the  same 
time  in  our  eagerness,  we  are  often  ready  to  bolt 
this  perpetual  labor,  this  slow  transition  to  things 
much  higher  than  those  we  now  have.  But  hav- 
ing and  growing  are  inseparable.  We  fully  pos- 
sess what  we  attain  only  by  means  of  growth,  and 
we  grow  only  by  a  slow  apprehension  of  what  is 


262    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose? 

involved  in  life.  We  may  take  part  in  growth; 
we  may  measure  its  difficulties  and  its  successes; 
we  may  suffer  its  disappointments  and  rejoice  in 
its  triumphs,  but  this  path  always  remains  to  be 
traveled.  In  growth  is  our  hold  on  the  wisdom 
and  grace  of  God:  by  it  we  enter  into  them  and 
come  to  possess  them.  Without  these  stages  of 
growth,  knowledge  falls  back  into  ignorance,  and 
our  finiteness  becomes  pitiable  deficiency.  We 
are  not  mere  spectators  of  good  and  great  things. 
We  feel  them,  measure  them,  understand  them  by 
our  own  labor,  by  treading  the  path  of  production 
and  by  taking  up  attainment  point  by  point.  We 
may  wish  greater  regularity  of  movement,  more 
immediate  success;  yet  as  a  matter  of  fact  we 
are  constantly  in  danger,  with  our  present  rate  of 
progress,  of  slurring  knowledge  and  missing  the 
highest  things  in  our  own  experience.  With  all 
reiterations  of  life  we  still  suffer  more  from  su- 
perficiality of  thought  than  we  do  from  standing 
still  when  a  more  stirring  experience  might  have 
been  given  us.  We  stumble  often  in  the  light 
of  the  coming  day,  but  when  the  day  has  actually 
broken,  we  are  not  conscious  of  any  loss  of  time 
in  reaching  it.  Growth  unites  itself  to  our  indo- 
lent apprehension  and  by  means  of  it  we  enter  into 
a  fuller  experience  of  life.  The  most  earnest  man 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose?    263 

never  feels  that  he  outstrips  knowledge,  but  often 
feels  that  its  many  doors  are  opened  to  him  with 
more  rapidity  than  he  can  meet.  An  act  of  crea- 
tion would  thrust  aside  all  measurements;  an  act 
of  growth  divides  and  subdivides  all  spaces  until 
we  form  some  estimate  of  their  dimensions. 

Spiritual  evolution  involves  individual  growth, 
social  growth,  and  the  action  and  reaction  of  the 
two  on  each  other.  Of  these  three  we  are  apt 
to  regard  social  growth  as  the  most  conspicuous. 
Our  individual  growth  is  so  involved  in  that  of  the 
community,  and  we  are  so  often  disposed  to  cast 
our  eyes  outward  in  order  to  watch  the  conditions 
of  action  which  come  to  us,  that  we  are  disposed 
rather  to  give  weight  to  the  influences  which  bear 
upon  us  than  to  note  our  own  responses  to  them. 
Looking  at  the  few  powerful  personalities,  which 
seem  to  rule  the  world  rather  than  to  be  ruled  by 
it,  we  have  set  apart  the  adjective,  great,  to  des- 
ignate these  leading  minds:  this  the  mass  of 
people  are  ready  to  accept  as  the  true  term  of 
value.  Much  of  this  brilliancy  arises  from  broken 
light  rather  than  from  the  strength  of  light.  The 
force  expressed  by  the  community  indicates  the 
direction,  if  not  the  energy,  of  the  tide.  The  ac- 
tion and  reaction  of  the  individual  is  the  constant 
variable  in  evolution.  There  is  no  limit  to  the 


264    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose? 

degree  and  variety  of  force  which  arises  from  it.  It 
is  the  germ  of  growth.  Though  we  meet  with  so 
much  difficulty  in  getting  from  one  stage  to  another 
in  development,  the  succession  of  these  changes, 
the  perpetual  change  of  equilibrium  which  they 
indicate  discloses  the  true  law  of  the  spiritual 
world.  Customs  in  society,  in  politics,  and  in  the 
state,  doctrines  and  rights  in  religion  reveal  the 
reluctance  of  the  human  mind  to  change  its  posi- 
tion ;  and  yet  in  due  time  they  all  give  way  to  the 
succeeding  states  whose  germs  they  contain.  This 
reaction  of  each  attainment  on  the  questions  which 
are  to  follow  it  gives  a  distinct  attitude  to  society, 
and  leads  us  to  feel  that  the  search  for  truth, 
rather  than  truth  itself,  is  the  law  of  our  activity. 
No  sooner  have  we  gained  certain  ground  than 
the  ground  we  have  not  gained  begins  to  rise  into 
view.  "I  count  not  myself  to  have  apprehended 
but  this  one  thing  I  do,  forgetting  those  things 
which  are  behind,  and  reaching  forth  to  those 
things  which  are  before,  I  press  toward  the  mark 
of  the  prize  of  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus." 

The  special  acts  or  agents  in  spiritual  evolution 
are  inheritance,  increments  in  knowledge,  and 
influence.  The  physical  world  is  in  its  regimen 
the  ground  of  inheritance.  Physical  endowments 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose  ?    265 

are  transmitted  to  offspring  and  carry  with  them 
many  spiritual  predispositions.  Those  partial  to 
physical  agencies  have  laid  much  emphasis  on  the 
term  of  transmission  and  have  striven  to  make  all 
powers  those  of  inheritance.  They  have  rejected 
increments  and,  in  spite  of  our  experience,  have 
found  all  phases  of  personal  power  in  transmission. 
But  a  world  without  additions  seems  to  us  an 
impossibility  and  quite  other  than  that  which  we 
know  as  our  habitation.  Our  world  has  sprung 
from  a  seed  and  its  growth  has  been  constantly 
attended  by  changes,  which  have  greatly  modified 
previous  conditions  and  have  given  rise  to  a  series  of 
stages.  Each  successive  form,  like  the  seed  itself, 
has  its  own  power.  Our  knowledge  is  a  knowl- 
edge of  successions,  and  we  are  hence  disposed  to 
liken  successions  to  one  another  and  to  flatter  our- 
selves that  by  that  means  we  understand  them. 
As  a  fact  we  soon  reach  in  all  knowledge  ulti- 
mate terms,  with  which  we  start  our  explanations. 
What  may  be  called  our  primitive  knowledge  is 
very  obscure,  and  not  until  we  are  in  motion  and 
begin  to  occupy  ourselves  with  successions  do  we 
seem  to  know  anything. 

Instruction,  influence,  the  data  of  wisdom  in 
character  transferred  constantly  as  intellectual 
food  are  great,  if  not  the  greatest,  mediums  of 


266    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose? 

growth.  While  we  gain  tangible  and  transferable 
material  in  the  accumulation  of  our  physical  life, 
the  power  itself  consists  in  wider  thought,  a  more 
just  and  decided  response  to  the  thought  about  us: 
the  persuasive  words  of  parents,  and  the  speech 
within  hearing  of  man  to  man  in  the  contacts  of 
each  day.  We  thus  enter  into  both  a  physical 
and  a  spiritual  growth,  and  unite  both  worlds  in 
our  development.  The  increments  we  receive  in 
this  evolution  are  of  the  same  nature  as  the  evolu- 
tion itself,  and  consist  both  of  material  endowments 
and  of  spiritual  impulses,  a  giving  and  taking  of 
facts  and  ideas  in  the  world  about  us. 

If  this  statement  of  growth  approximates  the 
truth,  we  see  what  sin  is.  It  is  an  offence  against 
growth.  What  disease  is  in  the  plant  or  the  animal, 
that  is  sin  in  spiritual  development.  It  opposes 
itself  in  large  ways  or  small  ways  to  the  onward 
movement  of  life.  Sin  like  disease  defines  itself 
in  results,  is  measured  by  results.  The  intuition- 
alist  and  the  utilitarian  may  approach  each  other 
along  this  nature  and  measurement  of  trans- 
gression. For  both,  transgression  declares  it- 
self in  the  interception  of  some  good  within  reach. 
The  intuitionalist  thinks  that  we  can  recognize 
the  good  and  evil  action  for  what  they  are  in  them- 
selves, while  the  utilitarian  regards  them  as  seen 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose  ?    267 

simply  in  their  results;  it  is  the  issue  of  actions 
which  defines  their  character.  Goods  bear  their 
price  mark;  to  this  we  look  in  making  exchanges. 
But  our  notion  of  value  precedes  our  statement 
of  it.  Both  intuitionalist  and  utilitarian  regard 
every  offence  as  an  interference,  intermediate  or 
remote,  in  one  form  or  other,  with  the  gains  of 
life. 

Punishment  is  either  the  mischief  wrought  by 
sin  itself,  or  is  some  additional  suffering  annexed 
to  it,  as  deterrent  from  further  offence.  The 
first  form  is  the  divine  punishment  of  this  world, 
the  second  is  human  punishment  aiming  at  indi- 
vidual or  general  safety.  The  divine  punishment  is 
a  disclosure  of  the  nature  of  sin  and  leads,  when  it  is 
efficacious,  to  discontinuance  and  escape.  Repent- 
ance and  forgiveness,  in  the  personal  bearing  of 
sin,  go  with  the  removal  of  its  consequences.  The 
corrected  mind  no  more  accepts  transgression 
than  does  the  healthy  man  treat  with  compla- 
cency any  disease  in  abatement  of  vital  function. 
The  experience  of  the  world  corrects  and  enlarges 
the  minds  and  hearts  of  men  until  we  are  placed 
in  union  with  all  well-conceived  and  beneficent 
action.  Conduct  is  much  confused  in  its  character 
and  results;  wrong  action  may  be  associated 
with  pleasure,  and  right  action  with  pain.  It  is 


268    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose  ? 

the  sifting  of  actions  and  the  tracing  of  them  in  their 
consequences  that  give  us  large  and  discriminating 
views  of  their  nature.  This  means  our  spiritual 
endowment,  by  which  we  come  to  know  conduct 
and  to  attach  to  it  fitting  estimates.  The  punish- 
ments of  God  are  all  revelations,  by  which  he  leads 
us  in  paths  of  safety  and  makes  us  cheerfully 
acquiescent  with  one  another  and  with  him.  A 
spiritual  harmony  is  arrived  at,  a  harmony  which 
involves  a  constant  distinction  between  good  and 
evil.  The  human  mind  is  thus  instructed  and 
trained  by  the  divine  mind  in  paths  of  life.  The 
primary  object  of  punishment  becomes  instruction 
and  persuasion.  The  field  of  activity  is  not  one 
of  force  but  of  knowledge. 

Human  punishment  is  often  perverted  by  human 
passion.  It  is  instituted  to  prevent  the  disturb- 
ance of  social  rights  liable  to  be  overthrown  by 
transgression.  The  motive  is  that  of  safety.  It 
preserves  the  lines  of  obedience  for  those  who  are 
willing  to  regard  them.  Human  punishment  is 
the  introduction  of  some  force  into  action  designed 
to  prevent  its  obvious  perversion.  We  fortify 
ourselves  against  transgression  in  two  ways:  a 
spiritual  exposure  of  it  may  be  sufficient;  or  the 
evil  influence  may  in  its  violence  destroy  liberty 
and  demand  that  we  should  thrust  it  back  with 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose  ?    269 

violence  into  its  own  place.  We  thus  employ  force 
where  persuasion  is  the  redemptive  agent.  In  this 
process  we  may  make  punishment  itself  a  new  tres- 
pass on  liberty.  If  we  refuse  to  use  force  when  our 
own  liberties  are  involved,  we  thereby  refuse  to 
protect  the  remainder  of  rights  which  are  tramped 
under  foot  by  the  disobedient.  The  legitimate 
principle  which  governs  civil  punishments  is  the 
protection  of  liberty,  the  condition  of  righteous- 
ness. If  the  ethical  motive  is  sufficient,  we  rely  on 
that ;  if  it  is  not  sufficient,  we  invoke  force  to  take 
its  place.  The  primary  purpose  of  divine  punish- 
ment as  we  know  it  in  the  world  is  instruction ;  the 
primary  purpose  of  human  punishment  is  safety. 
The  confusion  and  anger  which  overtake  us  in 
connection  with  punishment  have  been  very  great. 
We  have  often  made  it  the  medium  of  our  malign 
feelings  when  we  should  have  made  it  the  medium 
of  protecting  righteousness.  We  have  been  hasty, 
futile,  and  cruel  in  the  framing  and  in  the  infliction 
of  penalties,  and  have  been  ready  to  complain  of 
divine  ministration  in  the  world  because  it  has 
not  multiplied  its  restraints  and  shown  more  of 
these  faulty  qualities.  We  would  have  the  divine 
ruler  pursue  the  offender  as  we  often  pursue  him 
in  gratification  of  our  own  feelings.  The  Old 
Testament  shows  much  of  this  passion,  righteous 


270    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose? 

rejection  and  anger,  mingled  in  one  state  of  mind. 
Thus  we  have  undertaken  to  overcome  evil  with 
evil.  Once  in  a  while  the  Psalmist  hits  upon  the 
right  strain:  "Surely  Thou  didst  set  them  in 
slippery  places";  but  the  faulty  temper  is  close 
at  hand:  "Let  their  way  be  dark  and  slippery  and 
let  the  angel  of  the  Lord  persecute  them."  We 
have  not  learned  to  wait  on  sin  until  the  world 
has  had  time  truly  to  clear  itself  of  it.  We  are 
ready  to  take  the  inquisitor's  attitude,  assuming 
our  own  absolute  correctness  and  pushing  harshly 
aside  the  convictions  of  those  who  have  arrived 
before  us. 

This  bad  temper  has  found  frequent  expression 
in  a  belief  in  future  punishments.  What  we  have 
not  found  done  in  this  world  we  have  assumed 
would  be  done  in  a  future  world.  To  give  to  the 
divine  inflictions  a  personal  and  vindictive  char- 
acter is  the  temptation  of  those  who  mingle  passion 
and  punishment  in  one  unwholesome  product  in 
which  evil  and  good  countervail  each  other.  It  is 
not  an  easy  thing  even  in  thought  to  attain  unto  the 
transcendent  command :  "Be  not  overcome  of  evil, 
but  overcome  evil  with  good."  We  readily  fall 
into  the  danger  of  calling  on  God  to  chastise  those, 
whom  we  have  not  been  able  to  overcome  in  the 
strife  of  the  world.  Few  acts  that  take  on  readily 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose  ?    271 

the  form  of  righteousness  are  more  difficult  to 
purge  of  evil  than  punishment.  Few  acts  are  so 
hard  to  separate  into  their  elements  of  rejection 
of  sin  and  rejection  of  the  sinner.  Human  in- 
flictions have  almost  always  borne  with  them  some 
fresh  provocation  to  evil.  Indeed  we  have  come 
to  think  this  to  be  so  much  of  the  very  nature  of 
punishment,  as  to  look  with  complacency  on  suffer- 
ings which  serve  only  to  beget  fresh  evils.  If  we  re- 
gard punishment  as  reaching  its  highest  expression 
in  those  who  endure  suffering  with  no  abatement  or 
tendency  to  the  abatement  of  evil,  we  are  destroy- 
ing the  ministration  of  punishment  in  the  ethical 
world,  and  are  putting  in  its  place  a  new  and  horrible 
fact.  It  is  not  the  sufferings  inflicted  on  the  sinner 
which  reveal  the  character  of  sin,  but  the  sufferings 
which  are  involved  in  the  evil  action.  The  pen- 
alty may  fall  below,  or  be  commensurate  with,  or 
greatly  exceed  the  evil  incident  to  the  trans- 
gression. It  is  the  core  of  the  suffering  that  dis- 
closes the  nature  of  sin,  which  should  find  in 
punishment  a  proportionate  treatment  and  a 
suitable  restraint.  Those  who  endure  the  full 
retribution  are  in  many  cases  just  coming  under 
the  discipline  of  life,  and  have  still  to  learn  how 
many  delays  and  modifications  are  incident  to  sin 
and  in  how  many  forms  of  false  reasoning  it  is 


272    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose? 

covered  up.  Did  these  various  forms  and  stages 
of  punishment  all  lead  to  the  same  results,  the  fact 
would  go  very  far  to  contradict  the  belief  that  evil 
action  is  disclosed  in  its  consequences,  and  would 
lead  to  the  feeling  that  pain  and  suffering  are 
wrapped  up  blindly  in  the  progress  of  events  and 
cannot  be  escaped.  Incipient  sin,  even  if  sin  deserves 
punishment  not  embraced  in  its  results,  can  hardly 
be  treated  as  if  it  were  transgression  thoroughly  un- 
derstood and  adhered  to  in  spite  of  consequences. 
Justice,  however  important  it  may  be  in  human 
government,  has  no  absolute  claim  in  the  divine 
government.  Indeed  our  transfer  of  it  to  that  gov- 
ernment proceeds  on  a  process  of  reasoning  derived 
from  our  very  defective  relations  and  limited 
powers,  and  is  not  consistent  with  what  we  know 
of  divine  attributes  and  resources.  Justice  de- 
termines the  relation  of  punishments  to  one  another 
inflicted  under  various  circumstances,  and  is  at 
times  an  embarrassment  to  remedial  measures. 
That  sin  must  be  punished  by  some  infliction  is  a 
necessity  arising  from  human  weakness,  and  does 
not  find  admission  in  divine  or  even  in  parental 
control.  The  divine  government,  as  we  know  it, 
provides  no  proportionate  and  definite  suffering, 
but  allows  the  fruits  of  sin  to  accumulate  in  the 
history  of  the  race,  and  to  come  with  overwhelm- 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose  ?    273 

ing  force  on  those  finally  exposed  to  them.     Re- 
pentance and  change  may  at  any  time  and  in 
various  degrees  interpose  in  the  divine  procedure. 
Sin  is  not  treated  as  a  given  evil  agent  to  be  fol- 
lowed by  punishment  under  exact  measurement, 
but  as  an  evil  element  to  be  escaped  in  various 
ways  as  we   are  best  able.     Its  poison  is  sure 
to  appear  sooner  or  later  in  direct  or  in  indirect 
results,  and  is  to  be  treated  with  such  advantages 
or  disadvantages  as  each  case  admits.     Those,  who 
escape  the  most  obvious  and  immediate  conse- 
quences of  transgression,  are  not  thereby  relieved 
of  its  ultimate  consequences,  but  may  find  these 
summed  up  against  them  in  irretrievable  amounts. 
To  follow  a  system  like  this,  often  misunderstood 
and  to  the  minds  of  men  loosely  administered, 
with  severe  and  unflinching  punishments  spread- 
ing over  incalculable  periods,  is  wholly  incongru- 
ous and  is  a  dreadful  consummation  of  human  life. 
To  maintain  life  simply  for  the  sake  of  punish- 
ment is  to  unite  methods  in  the  divine  government 
wholly  inconsistent  with  each  other.     To  allow  hu- 
man life  to  proceed  loosely  under  an  instructional 
and  free  method  and  then  abruptly  to  bring  it 
under  the  most  remediless  regime  of  punishment  is 
certainly  a  view  very  difficult  of  acceptance,  and 
one  which  must  greatly  alter  our  notion  of  the 

18 


274    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose  ? 

divine  character.  To  suppose  that  the  govern- 
ment of  God  is  burdened  with  such  a  procedure 
is  to  make  the  two  parts  of  it,  the  present  and  the 
future,  wholly  inconsistent;  to  burden  the  mind 
with  things  which  are  too  vast  for  its  comprehen- 
sion and  which  tend  to  destroy  one  another.  No 
evil  in  punishment  can  surpass  that  of  transforming 
it  into  perpetual  cruelty.  Man  may  do  and  has 
done  this;  but  to  carry  such  a  subversion  over 
to  the  government  of  God  is  to  allow  darkness 
and  night  to  settle  down  on  the  universe.  The 
punishments  of  God  in  the  world,  where  we  con- 
stantly see  them,  are  instructive  and  corrective 
in  their  purpose;  are  broad  and  disciplinary  in 
their  operation ;  and  call  for  constant  adjustment 
of  action  on  our  part.  We  may  magnify  the  vir- 
tue of  justice,  but  it  is  applicable  to  human  ideas 
and  necessities  rather  than  to  divine  ones.  The 
disclosure  of  sin  and  the  rebuke  of  sin  go  together, 
and  this  is  the  government  of  free  creatures. 

It  also  takes  on  a  broad  range  and  renders  suf- 
fering in  the  race  as  well  as  in  the  individual  a 
lesson  of  experience.  Habits  which  give  rise  to 
contagious  diseases ;  habits  which  issue  in  national 
weakness;  habits  which  widely  break  down  char- 
acter are  all  treated  in  the  manner  of  individual 
vices,  and  our  personal  and  our  collective  training 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose?    275 

go  on  together.  The  divine  rule  is  in  a  wide  way 
disciplinary,  and  we  prosper  or  fail  in  connection 
with  it  as  we  follow  it  in  all  its  branches. 

Suffering  is  wrought  into  the  world,  takes  part 
in  its  evolution.  It  is  an  element  in  a  great  system 
and  must  be  judged  in  connection  with  it.  The 
amount  and  variety  of  life  in  the  world  and,  I 
think  we  may  say,  the  pleasure  of  that  life  are 
greatly  increased  by  a  system  in  which  life  nour- 
ishes life  as  contrasted  with  a  simply  vegetable  diet. 
It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  suffering  under 
this  method  is  not  less  than  it  would  be  if  animal 
life  were  altogether  herbivorous.  The  destruction 
of  animals  is  speedy  and  probably  more  merciful 
than  the  decay  of  old  age.  Animals  in  seeking 
food  take  the  shortest  means  of  securing  it,  and 
are  not  indifferent  to  the  use  of  fitting  means. 
It  is  probable  that  death  is  less  painful  when 
inflicted  as  a  means  of  securing  food  than  when 
drawn  out  by  the  slow  stages  of  decay.  Animals 
find  their  powers  exercised  in  escaping  pursuit  as 
well  as  in  instituting  it.  Animals  can  hardly  be 
said  to  be  cruel ;  they  are  indifferent  to  the  pain 
they  inflict,  but  they  do  not  increase  pain  as  a 
means  of  pleasure.  This  is  reserved  for  man,  and 
is,  even  with  him,  the  result  chiefly  of  wider  in- 
terests and  numerous  and  exacting  passions.  While 


276    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose? 

men  may  come  to  take  pleasure  in  the  infliction 
of  pain,  this  is  ordinarily  the  result  of  hostility, 
contempt,  or  even  of  the  appearance  of  doing  good. 
This  suffering  is  a  chief  means  of  discipline  in 
learning  the  limits  of  human  welfare.  The  mis- 
takes of  severity  are  chief  among  the  lessons  of 
wisdom  which  we  are  slowly  winning.  Conditions, 
which  enable  animals  to  inflict  death  or  to  escape 
it,  are  the  constant  product  of  evolution  and  much 
of  the  adaptation  of  animals  to  their  position  in 
the  world  arises  from  this  development  toward 
one  another.  The  advantages  of  such  a  system 
lie  not  simply  in  a  great  increase  of  life,  but  also 
in  the  superior  power  and  sagacity  that  go  with  it. 
These  increased  capabilities  are  of  much  moment 
in  man.  His  relation  to  animal  life  depends 
chiefly  on  the  use  and  control  which  come  to  him, 
while  his  forecast  and  providence  are  exercised 
largely  toward  animal  life  that  is  directly  or  in- 
directly committed  to  him ;  even  when  the  struggle 
is  irritating  and  only  partially  successful,  as  in 
much  insect  life,  still  his  powers  are  called  out  and 
he  gains  preeminence  by  constant  inquiry,  steady 
resistance,  and  habitual  foresight.  A  moth  may 
put  him  to  the  utmost  exercise  of  his  sagacity,  if 
he  is  not  to  have  his  ordinary  industry  unsuccess- 
ful. When  we  take  up  given  hard  cases,  we  may 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose  ?    277 

think  that  his  welfare  has  been  uniformly  neglected, 
but  when  our  attention  is  directed  to  the  outer 
range  of  opportunity,  we  can  hardly  fail  to  be 
struck  with  the  fitness  of  his  position.  The  struggle 
for  life  and  with  life  is  the  constant  test  of  superior- 
ity. The  world  would  be  a  very  different  place, 
with  much  less  discipline,  if  the  sufferings  incident 
to  these  conflicts  were  wanting. 

Moreover,  the  harmony  of  the  world  with  itself, 
with  man,  and  with  the  primary  effort  after  spirit- 
ual excellence,  calls  for  this  diffusion  of  condition 
in  every  part  of  it.  If  animals  had  no  weapons  of 
offence  and  of  defence,  if  things  rested  quietly  in 
the  hand  of  man,  if  man  used  and  abused  as  seemed 
to  him  good  the  objects  before  him  with  no  rebuke, 
if  he  were  not  confronted  by  a  world  armed  for  re- 
sistance as  well  as  by  one  in  a  high  degree  service- 
able to  his  appetites  and  passions,  the  excesses  of 
life  would  become  at  once  much  greater  and  the 
restraints  of  action  would  disappear.  In  a  world,  in 
which  lower  impulses  are  met  and  rebuked  in  a  va- 
riety of  ways,  the  lower,  as  excessive  appetite,  force 
the  higher,  as  temperance,  into  activity,  if  they 
would  not  at  once  lose  their  preeminence.  Man  is 
not  fitted  to  deal  exclusively  with  good  or  with  bad 
things.  He  calls  for  a  world  in  harmony  with  him- 
self, in  its  moral  issues,  and  facing  him  often  in  the 


278    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose  ? 

attitude  of  resistance  later  resulting  in  small  gains. 
Wherever  he  is  and  wherever  he  goes  he  is  still  com- 
pelled to  meet  tendencies  and  forces  acting  on  his 
own  level  and  compelling  a  careful  maintenance  of 
his  footing.  The  harmony  of  the  world,  man  being 
ignorant  and  sinful,  calls  for  men,  for  things,  and  for 
relations  which  are  in  keeping  with  his  own  feelings 
and  which  might  not  be  otherwise  admissible. 

But  suffering  is  also  a  powerful  agent  in 
discipline,  carrying  men  forward  to  patient  and 
heroic  achievement  not  otherwise  attainable.  It 
calls  forth  endurance,  sympathy,  and  courage. 
Some  are  disposed  to  lay  much  stress  on  the  hard- 
ships of  war  as  imparting  peculiar  virtues  to  the 
good  soldier.  They  are  willing  to  endure  its 
immense  costs  because  of  these  secondary  gains. 
The  sufferings  of  the  world  which  are  sure  to 
accompany  its  ordinary  unfolding,  if  heeded,  yield 
both  gentler  and  sterner  virtues  than  are  other- 
wise attainable.  "For  whom  the  Lord  loveth  he 
chasteneth,  and  scourgeth  every  son  whom  he 
receiveth.  Now  no  chastening  for  the  present 
seemeth  to  be  joyous  but  grievous;  nevertheless 
afterward  it  yieldeth  the  peaceable  fruits  of  right- 
eousness unto  them  that  are  exercised  thereby." 
This  is  a  fact  which  the  experience  of  the  world 
confirms.  Commend  us  to  those  who  have  borne 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose?    279 

their  share  of  the  evils  about  them,  falling  upon 
themselves  or  falling  upon  others,  as  a  Providence 
beyond  their  control  may  have  ordered. 

A  mastery  of  the  evils  incident  to  our  experience 
is  a  chief  virtue  attainable  in  three  ways.  The 
first  of  these  is  inheritance.  The  stream  of  suffer- 
ing that  flows  steadily  down  the  slopes  of  life  may 
be  made  more  gentle  and  endurable  by  soundness 
of  body  and  by  a  worthy  inheritance  which  yield 
the  consolations  of  life.  Our  physical  and  spiritual 
conditions  are  so  interwoven  by  inheritance,  and 
we  ourselves  and  our  posterity  are  so  united  in 
a  successful  effort  to  scatter  and  to  overcome  the 
evils  of  existence  that  a  sense  of  triumph  may  ac- 
company adverse  conditions.  We  are  taught  to 
strike  hard  and  to  take  into  our  providence  all  the 
conditions  of  strength. 

A  second  reduction  of  suffering  is  found  in 
instruction.  We  are  taught  to  lay  the  chief 
emphasis  of  life  on  spiritual  attainment.  This 
may  be  a  narrow,  personal  belief,  and  it  may  be  a 
broad,  national  one.  Jew  and  Gentile,  Greek  and 
Roman,  free  states  and  slave  states  have  been  at 
work  on  the  same  problem,  accumulating  an 
experience  of  good  and  evil ;  but  all  results  remain 
to  be  expanded  into  principles  along  the  path  of 
spiritual  life.  It  is  along  these  ways  of  growing 


280    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose  ? 

knowledge,  of  unfolding  wisdom,  that  we  and  the 
world  make  progress.  The  field  of  inquiry  is 
never  exhausted  so  long  as  there  is  error,  and  to 
place  our  feet  on  fields  more  fully  in  the  light  is 
our  best  attainment  individually  and  nationally. 
Again  we  master  life  by  a  steady  transfer  of 
issue.  The  elimination  of  old  injuries  and  the 
introduction  of  new  questions  farther  on  in  de- 
velopment help  to  restore  the  balance  between 
evil  and  good.  As  a  nation  we  were  occupied  for 
nearly  a  century  with  the  problem  of  slavery,  but 
we  have  now  left  it  behind,  and  are  occupied  with 
the  broader  question  of  the  relation  of  classes  and 
nationalities  to  one  another.  Much  was  thought 
and  said,  pro  and  con,  wisely  and  foolishly  as  to 
the  fitness  of  servitude.  We  can  hardly  imagine 
a  position  which  was  not  occupied,  but  the  board 
has  been  wiped  clean.  We  shall  not  again  work 
out  this  solution.  The  elementary  processes 
of  the  world  are  settled  by  growth ;  new  points  of 
procedure  are  raised.  When  we  are  ready  to  fall 
into  decay  by  useless  affirmations  and  denials, 
some  new  procedure  is  forced  upon  us  and  we  once 
more  go  forward.  The  boat  is  pushed  from  the 
shore,  and  we  are  left  to  manage  it  as  best  we  can. 
The  cross  lights  from  the  world  are  numerous, 
and  only  as  events,  which  we  cannot  order,  carry 


What  Is  the  World's  Purpose?    281 

us  onward  are  we  able  to  settle  the  relations  about 
us  and  to  get  our  bearings  in  the  world. 

There  is  a  tragic  element  in  our  experience. 
We  have  occasion  to  gird  our  loins,  to  put  forth 
our  strength,  and  to  take  possession  of  new  fields  as 
the  indispensable  condition  of  mastering  old  ones. 
Whatever  else  may  be  said  or  thought  of  the  world, 
it  is  not  a  place  of  routine.  Our  thoughts  must 
be  active,  our  sensibilities  alive;  and  if  familiar 
paths  are  blocked,  new  ones  are  opened.  This 
is  the  one  fact,  the  plainest  fact  of  our  experience. 
A  little  progress  in  the  fresh  way  may  turn  error 
into  truth,  mistake  into  knowledge,  and  a  sense  of 
failure  into  success. 

It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  world  is  a 
supreme  place  for  wide  and  yet  wider  vision ;  for 
deep  and  yet  deeper  knowledge;  that  a  thousand 
paths  lead  upward,  and  that  each  of  them  in  turn 
has  its  own  revelation.  The  world  is  fitted  to 
give  us  a  noble  experience,  to  call  out  and  to  harmo- 
nize our  powers  in  a  life  complete  within  itself. 
This  is  a  thing  for  which  it  was  made,  and  this  is 
its  hourly  fulfillment.  Judged  by  this  aim  com- 
plaint is  hushed,  enthusiasm  called  forth,  and 
events  reconciled  with  one  another  by  the  self- 
consistency  of  growth.  In  our  religious  faith 
difficulties  may  arise,  we  may  be  pushed  forward 


282    What  Is  the  World's  Purpose? 

by  what  has  the  appearance  of  failure;  but  one 
crowning  consummation  remains  ever  to  us,  that 
truth,  good,  is  rising  into  view  greater  and  better 
than  that  which  has  been  left  behind;  that  the 
experience  of  the  world,  if  we  accept  it,  means  more 
manhood,  more  light  within  ourselves,  an  opening 
of  the  soul  in  its  own  fitting  flowering  to  a  life 
among  living  things. 

This  article  suggests  subjects  rather  than  spreads 
them  out.  We  may  seem  to  find  the  government 
of  God  ~much  plainer  in  revelation  than  we 
have  made  it ;  but  if  we  believe  in  the  world  as  the 
creation  of  the  one  Ruler  of  all,  we  must  reconcile 
revelation  with  the  government  of  the  world,  not 
as  an  incident  of  the  divine  method,  but  as  the 
very  substance  of  the  divine  method.  We  must 
invite  ourselves  to  the  world  of  which  we  are  a  part, 
and  must  come  under  its  instruction.  If  the  evo- 
lutionary idea  is  in  the  world,  as  we  think  it  is,  we 
may  be  quite  sure  that  it  is  in  human  life,  and 
that  we  have  occasion  to  unite  ourselves  to  that 
unfolding  process  of  which  we  are  an  essential  part. 


KNOWLEDGE 

*T*HE  purpose  of  this  article  is  to  define  the  field 
of  knowledge;  to  give  the  powers  implied 
by  it ;  to  make  out  its  leading  directions ;  and  to 
indicate  its  tests.  Our  explorations  of  the  field 
of  knowledge  are  not  unlike  our  geographical 
inquiries  into  the  physical  features  of  the  world. 
Things  at  hand  and  of  much  moment  to  us  are 
cursorily  surveyed,  while  things  remote  and  of 
secondary  interest,  like  the  region  of  the  poles, 
are  sought  out  with  hardship  and  danger.  Our 
ambitions  are  often  in  inverse  ratio  to  the  useful- 
ness of  the  objects  we  pursue. 

If  we  let  the  word  information  stand  for  the 
attainments  of  the  ordinary  man,  if  we  understand 
by  science  a  somewhat  extended  and  complete 
tracing  of  causes  in  the  physical  world,  and  by 
philosophy  a  discussion  of  the  reasons  which 
underlie  events,  physical  or  intellectual;  the  three 
words,  information,  science,  and  philosophy,  will 
cover  the  field  of  knowledge  and  be  embraced 

by  it  as  a  comprehensive  designation  of  mental 

283 


284  Knowledge 

attainments.  This  field  has  much  more  unity 
than  our  common  speech  concerning  it  seems  to 
imply.  Information,  science,  and  philosophy  do 
not  stand  apart  to  the  degree  that  we  seem  to 
think.  Information  has  some  touch,  and  often- 
times a  liberal  touch,  of  science  and  of  philosophy. 
Science  frequently  relies  on  information  for  the 
direction  and  material  of  inquiry,  and  often 
extends  and  enlivens  itself  by  the  reasons  which 
pertain  to  philosophy.  Philosophy,  though  often 
extreme  and  erratic,  has  its  tasks  assigned  it  by  the 
information  and  the  science  of  men,  and  is  always 
striving  to  bring  these  under  some  rational  purpose 
and  to  make  them  parts  of  a  constructive  process. 
Information  is  frequently  disparaged  because 
it  exists  in  such  detached  and  fragmentary  forms, 
and  in  so  many  minds  falls  so  much  below  science. 
Information  contains  more  or  less  reference  to 
causes,  and,  as  a  great  aggregate  scattered  through 
the  community  with  simply  a  general  coherence, 
constitutes  the  connecting  material  in  human 
action,  the  matrix  of  knowledge  without  which 
it  would  be  unfruitful  and  crumble  away.  It 
plays  among  men  the  same  part  as  falls  to  famil- 
iar speech:  the  most  ignorant  can  put  something 
into  it  and  take  something  from  it,  according  to 
their  need.  Information  is  the  soil  out  of  which 


Knowledge  285 

science  springs,  and  to  which  it  brings  back  its 
conclusions,  the  seeds  of  further  gains.  An 
Edison  owes  in  part  his  inventive  power  to  his 
stores  of  information,  to  his  knowledge  of  the 
things  to  be  done  and  of  the  material  by  which 
they  are  to  be  done.  The  possibilities  of  many 
combinations  are  present  to  his  mind  and  the  pur- 
poses they  may  be  made  to  subserve.  The  laws 
of  science  are  operative  among  the  products  of 
the  world  and  unite  its  facts  and  events.  Science 
owes  much  of  its  honor  to  the  illumination  it 
brings  to  information,  and  information  is  con- 
stantly extended  and  made  more  exact  by  science. 
They  are  divided  by  no  fixed  bounds,  but  are 
constantly  flowing  into  each  other.  Information 
and  science  together,  as  one  whole,  constitute  the 
sea  in  which  the  ebb  and  flow  of  human  life  take 
place.  They  are  commingled  in  various  degrees 
in  different  persons,  who  carry  the  incentives  of 
knowledge  through  the  entire  community  and 
make  it  measurably  one  in  its  possessions  and 
ambitions.  When  science  applies  itself  to  the 
practical  tasks  of  the  world,  it  is  able  to  draw  aid 
from  all  classes  by  virtue  of  the  suitable  informa- 
tion that  is  common  to  them  all.  Science  begins 
at  once  to  percolate  downward  as  information  and 
to  make  of  society  a  scientific  storehouse  and 


286  Knowledge 

workshop.  If  science  lay  loose  on  the  surface  of 
the  world,  had  no  affiliations  with  general  knowl- 
edge, it  would  be  of  little  worth  and  would  begin 
to  perish  as  soon  as  it  was  born.  It  could  not 
accumulate  and  draw  after  itself  the  vast  resources 
of  civilization.  While  science  is  entitled  to  the 
honor  we  bestow  on  it,  it  is  so  in  large  part  because 
it  has  arisen  in  answer  to  the  claims  of  information, 
because  it  satisfies  its  wants  and  multiplies  its 
resources.  The  great  sum  of  human  knowledge 
is  information  stored  in  many  forms,  in  many 
persons,  and  ready,  like  seed  in  the  soil,  to  make 
answer  to  all  the  opportunities  and  exigencies  of 
growth.  Reason  moves  freely  in  all  directions  by 
virtue  of  it.  We  are  not  to  regard  the  world, 
because  of  the  scattered  forms  in  which  knowledge 
is  found,  as  made  up  of  scientists  and  philosophers, 
few  in  number,  and  a  herd  of  ignorant  men  who 
follow  on  with  difficulty  and  are  the  proper  sub- 
jects of  contempt  and  unrequited  labor.  The 
world  is  vital  throughout,  quick  with  thought,  and 
able  to  enter  into  the  uses  of  life.  It  is  a  physical, 
intellectual,  and  spiritual  world,  whose  light  is 
common  to  all  of  it,  caught  on  its  summits,  and 
spread  through  its  valleys. 

This  unity  of  knowledge  is  frequently  lost  sight 
of  in  philosophy,  and  philosophy  becomes  remote 


Knowledge  287 

and  speculative.  More  than  most  forms  of  knowl- 
edge, it  has  darkened  its  path  by  its  own  shadow, 
turning  its  back  upon  the  light.  Philosophy  may 
mean  tracing  the  connections  of  reason  between 
its  own  speculative  conclusions,  when  it  should 
mean  a  diligent  inquiry  into  the  facts  of  the  world, 
and  those  coherent  terms  of  thought  by  which 
these  facts  are  fittingly  rendered  to  us.  Thus  the 
universe  about  us  and  our  thoughts  concerning  it 
are  borne  forward  in  a  constructive  process  by 
which  each  realizes  in  the  other  its  full  power. 
Philosophy,  almost  equally  with  science,  has  its 
data  given  to  it  and  mounts  by  means  of  them  into 
those  high  places  from  which  the  world  is  more 
fully  seen.  The  task  of  philosophy  is  to  expound 
the  order  of  events,  to  give  the  most  comprehensive 
terms  of  thought  to  them,  until  all  things  hold  to- 
gether as  one  creation.  This  is  the  highest  ser- 
vice, and  the  most  restrained  service,  of  the  mind 
to  itself.  A  clear  and  cloudless  intelligence  shines 
out,  disclosing  the  world  in  its  purpose  and  pros- 
pects, as  it  responds  to  the  spirit  of  man  and  to  the 
creative  Spirit,  moving  together  in  the  effulgent 
days. 

The  purpose  of  philosophy  is  to  come  into  posses- 
sion of,  and  to  expound  this  unity;  it  is  the  ex- 
position of  the  world  on  its  physical,  intellectual, 


288  Knowledge 

and  spiritual  sides.  It  believes  that  the  world 
is  one  whole  and  as  such  it  strives  to  render  it.  It 
is  a  study  of  the  plan  of  the  world  and  is  at  least 
a  partial  apprehension  of  it.  What  the  world 
roughly  is,  is  given  in  the  experience  of  men,  in 
what  we  have  termed  information ;  and,  with  some- 
what more  of  fullness,  in  science.  If  philosophy 
does  not  still  further  expound  these  very  facts, 
if  it  magnifies  a  part  and  diminishes  a  part,  it  so 
far  ceases  to  be  philosophy.  Instead  of  solving  the 
problem  set  before  it,  it  puts  in  its  place  another 
rendering  of  knowledge,  in  proof  of  which  it  has 
nothing  to  offer  but  the  correspondence  with  it  of 
its  own  explanatory  processes.  The  theory  rules 
the  facts,  not  the  facts,  the  theory.  If  the  thing 
explained  is  not  the  empirical,  the  universal  view 
of  the  world;  if  the  complexity  of  things  has  been 
simplified  by  inadequate  analysis  and  unreasonable 
segregation ;  if  fundamental  differences  have  been 
resolved  into  antagonisms  and  an  arbitrary  relation 
has  been  established  between  the  two ;  if  primitive 
distinctions  have  been  overcome  by  merely  verbal 
agreements,  the  philosophy  so  attained  ceases  to  be 
a  guide  to  the  mind  and  needs  itself  to  be  set  aside 
by  a  more  thorough  acceptance  of  the  phenomena 
brought  to  our  notice.  Light  may  seem  to  shine, 
but  it  falls  on  a  cunningly  devised  diagram  of 


Knowledge  289 

knowledge,  and  not  upon  knowledge  itself.  These 
forms  of  philosophy  are  soon  left  behind,  events 
taking  no  notice  of  them,  but  pushing  on  in  their 
own  lines  of  fulfillment.  Philosophy  thus  loses 
step  with  the  world  and  wanders  off  into  an  in- 
tellectual dreamland.  Like  a  spider  at  the  center 
of  its  own  net,  it  may  catch  a  few  flies,  but  it  has  no 
effect  on  the  movement  of  the  world.  Philosophy, 
having  the  most  difficult  task  to  perform,  may  more 
frequently  than  other  forms  of  knowledge  become 
visionary,  but  even  then  it  renders  a  service  pro- 
portional to  the  strength  bestowed  upon  it.  It 
defines  the  region  through  which  it  runs,  and 
leads  us  to  seek  better  paths  in  some  other  direc- 
tion. No  explanatory  effort  is  altogether  a  failure. 
It  at  least  prepares  us  for  the  next  effort. 

When  philosophy  becomes  knowledge  and  gives 
us  a  firmer  hold  on  all  knowledge;  when  it  moves 
forward  with  the  processes  of  thought,  making 
them  more  coherent,  more  harmonious,  then  it  is 
the  summation  of  all  effort  and  the  crown  of  in- 
telligence. Life,  the  daily  life  which  drops  so 
easily  into  insignificance,  becomes  vigorous  and 
luminous;  beliefs  and  actions,  otherwise  instinct- 
ive and  half -hearted,  pass  into  the  free,  bold,  yet 
restrained  movement  of  reason.  Philosophy,  in 
and  of  itself,  no  more  needs  justification  than  does 

19 


290  Knowledge 

information  or  science.  In  spite  of  its  failures 
and  waywardness  it  is  as  sure  as  these  forms  of 
knowledge  to  companion  with  all  vigorous  life. 
Men  cannot  fail  to  raise  ithe  ['questions  of  the 
purposes  and  conditions  of  our  being;  all  other 
questions  lead  to  them.  It  matters  not  how  in- 
adequate many  of  the  answers  given,  we  shall  re- 
turn-again and  again  to  these  inquiries,  feeling  that 
a  little  gain  here  exceeds  all  other  wealth.  When 
men  scorn  philosophy,  they  do  it  with  a  spiteful- 
ness  which  shows  how  deep  a  sense  of  loss  has  come 
to  the  mind.  Let  one  return  from  explorations 
with  any  more  fit  interpretation  of  human  life, 
with  any  sufficient  hint  where  the  path  of  progress 
lies,  and  he  will  be  welcomed  as  a  guide  of  men. 

We  now  come  to  the  fundamental  inquiry: 
what  powers  of  apprehension  do  these  forms  of 
knowledge  presuppose ;  how  is  the  mind  furnished 
forth  for  its  work?  Intelligence  implies  two 
things,  stimuli  in  the  environment,  which  incloses 
it,  and  ability  to  receive  these  stimuli,  turning 
them  into  knowledge.  Throughout  the  physical 
world  two  or  more  agents  are  involved  in  every 
effect.  The  action  on  either  side  is  both  active 
and  passive.  Each  is  what  it  is  in  relation  to 
the  other.  Oxygen  and  hydrogen  unite  to  make 
water.  Water  is  the  result  of  neither  save  in  re- 


Knowledge  291 

lation  to  the  other.  All  forms  of  life  are  developed 
under  the  reciprocal  action  of  external  conditions 
and  internal  powers,  suitable  to  each  other.  In- 
telligence is  of  the  same  double  character.  Re- 
ceptive capacity  and  stimulating  conditions  are  the 
requisites  of  attainment.  Man  is  no  more  fitted 
to  understand  the  world  than  the  world  is  fitted 
to  call  out  his  powers.  No  quality  in  things  pro- 
duces intelligence;  neither  does  receptive  sensi- 
bility without  appropriate  stimuli.  The  plate  of 
the  photographer  yields  its  impression,  upon  the 
presence  of  the  objects  desired,  and  these  objects 
attain  a  successful  representation  only  by  the 
susceptibility  of  the  receiving  plate.  What  in  the 
mind  are  these  receiving  powers? 

All  mental  phenomena,  whether  of  thought  or  of 
feeling,  imply  consciousness.  Consciousness  con- 
ditions mental  facts,  and  gives  them  reality. 
Consciousness  is  not  something  in  addition  to  the 
mental  state,  it  is  the  condition  of  that  state  itself. 
No  mental  state,  whatever  its  specific  character, 
arises  otherwise  than  in  consciousness.  In  reference 
to  any  thought  or  feeling  we  are  at  liberty  to  ask — 
Whose  is  it?  In  whose  consciousness  has  it 
arisen?  What  are  its  whereabouts  in  the  mental 
world?  The  case  is  precisely  similar  to  the  re- 
lation of  physical  objects  to  space.  Space  is  de- 


292  Knowledge 

fined  by  them;  none  of  them  can  exist  otherwise 
than  in  space.  As  consciousness  is  the  common 
condition  of  mental  states,  it  is  sometimes  used  as 
a  collective  designation  of  these  states,  and  we 
speak  of  personal  consciousness,  class  conscious- 
ness, national  consciousness,  the  consciousness  of 
the  race.  It  gains  this  extension  by  virtue  of 
accompanying  all  mental  phenomena  and  being 
identified  with  none  of  them.  Consciousness  is 
thus  a  form  for  intellectual  experiences,  that  which 
gives  to  them  a  definite  nature.  They  are  in- 
tellectual experiences  because  they  have  appeared 
in  consciousness,  and  they  have  appeared  in  con- 
sciousness because  they  are  intellectual  experiences. 
Physical  phenomena  establish  thus  reality  in  space, 
and  without  this  relation  they  are  unreal. 

There  is  indeed  much  talk  about  subconscious 
phenomena,  as  in  some  way  occupying  an  inter- 
mediate position  between  physical  and  mental 
facts.  But  this  is  a  case  in  which  we  have  used 
fanciful  words  to  express  fanciful  facts,  and  by 
means  of  them  to  conceal  real  relations.  As 
consciousness  occupies  no  place,  below  conscious- 
ness has  no  meaning.  We  have  two  designations 
for  all  realities,  conscious  experience  and  space 
occupation.  The  interactions  of  these  two,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  body  and  the  mind  of  man,  may 


Knowledge  293 

be  very  extended,  subtle,  and  obscure,  but  neither 
of  them  thereby  becomes  other  than  what  it  is, 
physical  or  mental  phenomena.  A  fanciful  inter- 
mediate helps  nothing,  and  obscures  the  real  de- 
pendence. Our  real  knowledge  still  lies  either  in 
the  intellectual  or  in  the  physical  world,  and  our 
true  problem  is  the  dependence  of  the  two  on 
each  other. 

Knowledge  starts  in  consciousness,  and,  what- 
ever form  it  may  later  assume,  the  germ  of  all  has 
been  found  in  the  powers  of  mind,  acting  in  their 
own  domain.  Every  intuitive,  reflective,  per- 
ceptive, or  emotional  power  abides  in  consciousness 
to  receive  and  to  communicate  impulse,  and  by 
these  impulses  to  build  up  an  intellectual  and  a 
physical  world.  If  the  canvas,  which  receives  the 
pictures  of  the  stereopticon,  were  still  more  nega- 
tive, indifferent  to  the  images  cast  upon  it,  it 
would  illustrate  consciousness  as  the  background 
of  spiritual  life  in  the  processes  of  knowledge.  This 
reality  and  homogeneity  of  the  inner  experience 
are  soon  broken  by  the  external  world.  The  child 
becomes  aware  of  the  fact  that  its  impressions  do 
not  unfold  in  an  uninterrupted  flow  out  of  itself, 
but  that  other  facts  appear  among  them,  pos- 
sessed of  peculiar  interest.  These  facts  are  soon 
referred  to  an  independent  origin,  to  an  external 


294  Knowledge 

world.  Two  instinctive,  inevitable  movements 
of  mind  are  involved  in  this  reference.  The 
phenomena  are  borne  outward  by  the  notion  of 
causation  and  are  given  locality  by  the  notion  of 
space.  The  notions  of  causation  and  space,  na- 
tive to  the  mind  as  an  interpreting  agent,  enable 
it  to  apprehend  its  first  experiences  and,  later,  to 
order  for  it  all  the  data  of  reflection.  The  knowing 
process  cannot  begin  nor  proceed  without  them. 
They  are  its  incipient  terms.  In  their  absence  all 
impressions  would  remain  a  simple  sequence, 
without  any  power  of  distribution  or  rational  use. 
We  begin  to  know,  and  we  know  with  increasing 
fullness,  because  these  and  kindred  powers  of 
knowledge  are  with  us.  The  knowing  process 
does  not  bring  forth  its  own  postulates;  it  first 
knows  and  later  analyzes  the  conditions  of 
knowledge. 

While  knowledge  starts  in  consciousness  and 
carries  everywhere  the  forms  of  consciousness  along 
with  it,  it  is  readily  captured  by  the  external 
world,  an  independent  procedure,  giving  it  most  of 
its  terms  of  pleasure.  Like  the  lichen,  it  grows 
away  from  its  own  center,  and  is  chiefly  alive  at  its 
ever  enlarging  circumference.  Observation,  re- 
flection, memory,  all  the  powers,  by  which  knowl- 
edge is  increased  and  formulated,  are  called  into 


Knowledge  295 

activity  by  external  objects;  and  knowledge, 
whether  in  the  ordinary  form  of  information  or  in 
the  less  usual  form  of  science,  begins  to  be  attained. 
These  and  the  associated  powers  are  the  implica- 
tions of  knowledge,  whether  obscurely  or  clearly 
exercised,  whether  analyzed  or  unanalyzed  terms 
in  the  process. 

Early  in  the  movement,  and  with  growing  dis- 
tinctness as  it  proceeds,  other  ideas,  the  furniture 
of  the  mind,  rise  to  the  surface  and  bring  with  them 
a  wider,  deeper,  and  more  spiritual  outlook  on  the 
world.  What  we  term  truth,  beauty,  and  right, 
laws  of  thought,  feeling,  and  conduct,  ruling  in  the 
visible  world  though  not  visibly  presented  in  it, 
gain  their  own  with  the  growing  activity  of  mind, 
and  arrange  under  themselves,  in  higher  orders, 
the  phenomena,  internal  and  external,  that  come 
to  us  through  our  perceptive  and  reflective  powers. 
Hereby  a  new  and  spiritual  cast  is  given  to  physical 
things  and  events.  A  life  thus  superinduced  upon 
the  physical  life  not  only  transcends  it,  but  brings 
subordination  and  ministration  to  it  in  the  whole 
range  of  vision,  a  deeper  reality  overlying  the 
entire  process  of  living. 

Those  who  accept  these  primitive  endowments 
of  the  mind  in  its  relation  to  the  world  about  us 
are  frequently  met  with  a  disparaging  statement 


296  Knowledge 

of  the  true,  the  beautiful,  and  the  good,  in  their 
rule  over  things.  Truth  becomes  simply  the 
coincidence  of  facts  and  judgments.  Beauty  is 
the  resemblance  between  nature  and  the  works 
of  man.  Right  is  another  name  for  the  useful. 
These  easy  analyses  do  not  satisfy  the  general 
mind;  it  is  constantly  struggling  for  a  deeper 
meaning.  Though  these  ideas,  under  these  ready 
explanations,  have  their  periods  of  weakness, 
they  have  also  their  periods  of  strength,  in  which 
they  reject  exposition  and  go  forward  to  rule  the 
thoughts  of  men;  periods  of  discovery,  inventive 
insight,  and  exalted  action.  While,  therefore,  a 
disparaging  analysis  may  serve  to  unite  these  ideas 
more  closely  to  the  facts  with  which  they  are 
associated,  they  never  measure  these  ruling  notions 
as  they  lie  in  the  human  mind,  nor  push  them  back 
into  a  subordinate  position.  Men  by  means  of 
them  still  rise  into  a  higher  world.  This  is  not 
merely  the  result  in  cultivated  minds  but  in  the 
popular  mind  as  well.  Chief  among  the  pheno- 
mena to  be  expounded  by  philosophy  are  the  pre- 
valence and  the  growing  power  of  these  ideas.  It 
matters  little  whether  this  or  that  acute  and  restive 
mind  withdraws  its  allegiance  from  these  notions, 
they  still  remain  to  renew  the  conflict  and  to  rule 
the  world.  These  considerations  are  ever  coming 


Knowledge  297 

more  clearly  into  the  light,  ever  exalting  individu- 
als, ever  contributing  shame  and  honor  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  While  this  historic  nar- 
ration may  be  badly  written,  the  clue  of  goodness 
is  never  wholly  lost.  Howsoever  coarse  the  fabric, 
it  is  still  this  golden  thread  which  gives  it  luster. 

These  three  qualities  impart  at  once  a  range  to 
our  experience,  which  leads  up  to  an  acceptance  of 
the  infinite  and  the  immortal.  The  infinite  laps 
human  life  without  restraining  it  or  smothering  it. 
The  universe  stands  over  against  us,  not  simply  to 
increase  perceptive  faculty,  but  to  lead  our  thoughts 
onward,  to  enlarge  our  sense  of  possibilities.  We 
live  in,  and  may  live  with  the  illimitable;  the 
illimitable  making  answer  to  our  own  narrow  life. 

While  the  mental  processes  in  man  are  not 
entirely  distinct  from  those  of  the  brute,  his  pe- 
culiar endowments  are  wholly  superior  to  those 
we  find  elsewhere.  Animals  are  frequently  pos- 
sessed of  very  acute  senses,  of  vigorous  memory,  and 
of  the  collocations  of  an  extended  experience  closely 
united  to  their  wants.  The  results  are  often  a 
fullness  of  action  which  nearly  approaches  that  of 
reason.  The  force  and  aptness  of  suitable  associa- 
tions may  seem  to  equal  if  not  to  surpass  those  of 
thought.  Men,  in  distinction  from  other  forms 
of  conscious  life,  are  capable  of  forming  ideas 


298  Knowledge 

which  become  the  means  and  the  material  of  re- 
flection. If  the  conclusions  so  reached  are  fre- 
quently slow  and  erroneous  as  compared  with  the 
results  of  association,  they  none  the  less  have  far 
more  scope  and  elevation.  These  ideas,  the  means 
and  the  material  of  thought,  are  the  formative 
notions  which  precede  all  mental  construction,  and 
the  generalizations  which  accompany  perception, 
throwing  its  phenomena  into  classes  and  groups  by 
which  they  become  the  data  of  knowledge.  Man 
is  an  ideal  creature  in  that  his  most  extended  con- 
victions are  those  which  attach  to  ideas,  the  pro- 
ducts of  an  intellectual  outlook. 

Our  third  consideration  is  the  forms  which 
knowledge  assumes  in  the  reciprocal  actions  and 
reactions  which  the  mind  of  man  and  the  external 
world  take  on  in  reference  to  each  other.  In  our 
intellectual  constructions  we  are  still  in  the  vol- 
canic period.  Our  art  is  not  taking  on  its  last 
phases,  ;like  the  earth  under  the  ministrations  of 
heat  and  cold,  dryness  and  wet,  but  there  are  still 
sudden  outbreaks  of  thought,  spasmodic  inquiry 
by  which  certain  branches  of  knowledge  are 
carried  quite  beyond  their  proportionate  relation  to 
other  considerations,  and  so  gather  false  conclu- 
sions, which  stand  in  the  way  of  further  investiga- 
tion. Such  a  pushing  force,  for  a  series  of  years,  has 


Knowledge  299 

shown  itself  in  the  physical  sciences.  These  have 
been  carried  not  only  much  beyond  previous 
knowledge,  but  have  absorbed  attention  to  the 
disparagement  of  philosophical  inquiry.  Physics 
has  given  us  an  extended  discussion  of  matter  and 
force  considered  in  masses ;  chemistry  has  handled 
the  same  theme  in  minute  forms  and  ultimate  com- 
binations; biology  has  investigated  the  various 
kinds  of  life;  and  geology  has  grouped  all  these 
agents  in  the  construction  of  the  physical  world. 
Successes  in  these  simpler  and  earlier  directions  of 
inquiry  easily  turn  thought  from  the  more  complex 
and  less  definite  investigations  of  the  intellectual 
world,  and  insist  on  results  which  not  only  cannot 
be  attained,  but  ought  not  to  be  attained,  when  we 
have  to  do  with  the  free  and  variable  elements  which 
lift  us  above  the  close  connections  of  causation. 
The  gains  of  these  physical  pursuits  have  been 
so  great,  so  obvious,  so  generally  accepted  that  we 
have  no  occasion  to  dwell  on  them.  We  have 
only  to  urge  caution  lest  the  mind  be  overwhelmed 
by  the  possibilities  of  knowledge  which  lie  still 
hidden  in  the  things  close  about  us.  We  have 
found  our  uses  and  powers  so  enlarged  toward  the 
world,  and  we  have  been  placed  in  such  a  position 
of  superiority  as  compared  with  those  who  have 
gone  before  us,  that  we  increasingly  incur  the 


300  Knowledge 

danger  of  coming  under  the  dominion  of  things 
inferior  to  us.  Gaining  much  we  are  liable  to  lose 
still  more.  We  have  been  impressed  as  never  be- 
fore with  the  unity  of  the  world ;  yet  a  unity  which 
abates  our  effort  to  carry  it  forward  into  the  higher 
unity  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  apprehension. 
The  physical  has  so  asserted  itself  at  the  expense  of 
the  mental,  has  so  drawn  attention  from  superior 
to  minor  profiting,  that  utilities,  the  mere  con- 
ditions of  existence,  have  gained  ground  on  ex- 
istence itself,  and  have  left  us  in  possession  of 
palpable  good  with  no  additional  power  to  turn  it 
into  permanent  welfare.  We  have  settled  into 
the  lower  life  when  we  should,  by  means  of  it, 
have  passed  into  the  higher  life  of  which  it  is  the 
threshold.  The  hasty  and  narrow  criticisms  of 
philosophical  inquiry  as  visionary  have  been  often 
united  with  theories  that  showed  the  contagion  of 
this  same  baneful  region  of  metaphysics.  The  most 
serious  drawback  in  connection  with  physical  re- 
search has  been  the  effort  to  expound  the  entire 
outfit  of  life  in  a  positive,  material  fashion.  The 
siege  guns  of  derision  have  been  brought  to  bear 
against  the  strongholds  of  the  ethical  and  spiritual 
world,  and  have  been  accompanied  in  their  use  by 
the  dogmatic  assertion  that  the  difficulties  that 
had  not  been  overcome  did  not  exist.  But  one 


Knowledge  301 

result  brought  into  the  foreground  by  these  dis- 
cussions, which  has  more  than  compensated  any 
failures  that  have  gone  with  them,  has  been  the  ,- 
discovery  that  a  true  evolution  has  prevailed  from 
the  very  beginning,  and  is  still  present  to  carry 
upward  the  creative  movement.  Material  and 
spiritual  events  will  finally  rear  a  cosmic  structure, 
whose  suggestions  have  been  present  from  the 
outset  and  whose  completed  product  will  hold 
both  the  one  and  the  other  in  constant  interplay. 

When  we  pass  from  physics  to  psychology,  we 
enter  a  region  whose  data  and  proofs  are  quite 
distinct  from  those  left  behind.  Mental  facts 
have  not  that  fixed  form  nor  that  presentation  in 
common  which  go  with  physical  facts.  They  are 
not  quite  the  same  to  different  observers,  nor 
the  same  to  the  same  observer  at  different  times. 
The  task  of  the  psychologist  is  not  to  simplify  the 
facts,  but  to  make  them  apprehensible  in  their 
natural  complexity  and  constant  flow.  We  are 
not  at  liberty  to  infer  a  similar  origin  for  pheno- 
mena that  bear  a  similar  appearance.  The  in- 
stinctive and  organic  elements  may  predominate, 
or  the  reflective  and  rational  ones,  in  actions  that 
bear  much  the  same  external  form.  An  animal 
with  quick  perceptions  and  tenacious  memory 
may  adopt  a  line  of  action  that  in  man  would 


302  Knowledge 

imply  careful  thought.  We  constantly  have 
occasion  in  observing  the  actions  of  men  and  of 
animals,  and  of  men  in  different  stages  of  develop- 
ment, to  put  back  of  them  diverse  mental  pro- 
cesses. Much  of  our  want  of  charity  arises  from 
assigning  to  others  intellectual  states  which  belong 
only  to  ourselves.  We  accept  or  condemn  conduct 
according  as  it  would  have  been  fitting  or  un- 
fitting in  us.  To  interpret  the  mental  states  of 
different  persons,  nations,  races,  and  periods  from 
their  several  manifestations  requires  a  wide  move- 
ment of  mind  and  heart.  We  constantly  assume 
data  which  have  very  little  proof  in  fact.  In 
spiritual  events,  we  reason  from  effects  to  causes, 
under  the  analogy  of  our  daily  lives,  much  as  if  we 
were  dealing  with  familiar  physical  events.  Our 
interpreting  may  be  very  far  from  accurate,  yet 
we  expend  little  time  in  its  correction  and  much 
time  in  its  application.  A  biography,  whose  formal 
features  are  correct,  may  present  a  very  meager  or 
even  a  false  picture.  That  mental  facts  are  ob- 
scure in  form,  variable  in  character,  and  have  their 
own  laws  of  sympathetic  interpretation  is  a  fact 
easily  forgotten  in  passing  from  physical  to  mental 
inquiry. 

We  have  added  to  this  confusion  in  recent  years 
by  the  introduction  of  sub-conscious  states  as  the 


Knowledge  303 

forerunners  of  conscious  ones.  Thus  utterly  un- 
known states  are  first  inferred  from  known  ex- 
periences, then  laid  hold  of  by  fancy,  and  made  to 
expound  obscure  facts  of  mind.  Having  lost  the 
true  clue  we  invent  a  clue  that  we  may  not  be  left 
without  a  theory.  This  is  not  knowledge,  but 
allowing  one  mystery  to  beget  another,  both 
yielding  only  the  light  they  have  cast  on  each 
other. 

With  a  like  tyrannical  use  of  the  notion  of 
causation  we  discuss  inheritance  in  mental  quali- 
ties. We  unite  the  characteristics  of  descendants 
with  those  of  ancestry  in  an  arbitrary,  con- 
jectural fashion  simply  because  we  must  have 
causes  for  obscure  events.  What  the  relation  is 
in  mental  inheritance,  how  far  it  extends,  what  are 
its  limitations,  and  how  it  unites  itself  to  training 
are  very  difficult  questions,  and,  if  we  are  bound  to 
answer  them,  we  must  take  on  corresponding 
caution  and  patience.  The  error  does  not  lie  in 
exploring  perplexed  problems,  but  in  bringing  to 
them  inapplicable,  or  only  partially  applicable, 
clues.  Personal  endowment  does  not  stand  with- 
out connection  with  personal  relations,  yet  it  is  not 
identical  with  them.  Powers  do  not  promiscuously 
resolve  themselves  into  one  another.  When  we 
reach  mental  phenomena  we  must  treat  them  as 


304  Knowledge 

facts  of  their  own  kind,  must  understand  them 
under  their  own  laws,  and  must  be  content  to 
be  ignorant  until  expository  relations  are  reached. 
We  are  to  accept  the  fact  that  mental  pheno- 
mena are  in  the  highest  degree  mobile.  We  have 
been  slow  to  recognize  the  constant  changeability 
of  the  forms  of  life  in  response  to  the  diverse  con- 
ditions which  come  to  them.  We  have  been  more 
disposed  to  recognize  the  change  of  circumstances 
in  their  effect  on  life  than  the  change  of  life 
in  response  to  these  circumstances.  No  phenomena 
are  more  mobile,  more  affected  by  alteration 
of  conditions,  more  capable  of  adaptation  to 
new  conditions,  than  are  mental  phenomena. 
Childhood,  manhood,  old  age  makes  each  its  own 
response  to  the  proffers  which  life  is  offering  to 
it,  a  response  which  must  be  interpreted  under 
its  own  terms.  Each  period  is  modified  by 
the  diverse  appeals  which  are  made  to  it,  and  so 
comes  to  present  phases  different  in  kind  and,  at 
times,  in  apparent  conflict  with  one  another.  An 
example  of  great  changes  in  character  is  found  in 
what  is  termed  will.  The  will  is  often  spoken  of  as 
if  it  were  a  distinct  power,  a  clamp  capable  of 
sudden  application.  It  is  further  conceived  as 
under  the  operation  of  motives,  much  in  the 
nature  of  forces,  upon  which  its  determinations 


Knowledge  305 

arise;  that  when  the  mental  mechanism  reaches 
any  special  position  the  results  appropriate  to 
it  become  inevitable.  Thus  while  this  line  of 
causation  may  be  more  obscure  than  most 
lines,  it  is  thought  to  be  not  less  real  and  fixed. 
The  will  should  rather  be  conceived  as  the 
last  expression  of  mental  movement,  the  result 
of  thought  and  feeling  which  have  been  slowly 
reached  and  have  all  along  been  under  guidance. 
The  mind  can  think  and  feel,  observe  and  conclude, 
abbreviate  or  prolong  these  processes,  turn  them 
in  one  direction  or  another,  and,  in  consequence  of 
this  living  interplay  of  powers,  at  length  slide  into 
one  conclusion  or  another  as  the  line  of  activity 
determines. 

Liberty  is  in  constant  exercise,  and  is  pre- 
paring the  way  for  one  or  another  form  of  effort. 
Thought  involves  freedom,  is  a  pursuit  of  truth 
shorter  or  more  prolonged,  turned  in  one  direction 
or  in  another,  according  to  the  bent  of  the  mind. 
Freedom  is  of  the  nature  of  mind  and  goes  with 
every  reflective  process.  Mind  is  to  be  conceived 
as  an  active  self-poised  agent,  proposing  and  pur- 
suing its  own  ends ;  not  as  a  force  of  given  nature 
and  degree,  acting  among  other  forces  and  deter- 
mined in  its  last  results  by  the  balance  of  the  forces 
in  which  it  is  involved.  Mind  combines  both 


306  Knowledge 

forms  of  effort,  may  yield  to  conditions  or  may 
resist  them,  resist  in  a  greater  or  in  a  less  degree,  in 
all  states  measuring  itself  by  itself.  Mind  remains 
mind  only  under  these  terms,  and  must  be  studied 
and  understood  in  connection  with  them.  The 
formation  and  the  use  of  ideas  are  its  preeminent 
quality.  Man  is  in  some  sense  supernatural,  as 
he,  in  his  highest  endowment,  rises  above  nature, 
contemplates,  and  introduces  into  it  his  own  lines 
of  action.  Man  understands  himself  and  under- 
stands his  fellows  under  these  conditions.  No 
other  theory  is  employed  in  the  procedure  of 
human  life.  When,  therefore,  we  reach  psy- 
chology, we  must  prepare  ourselves,  not  for 
accidental  and  disorderly  procedure,  but  for  a 
movement  profoundly  affected  by  reasons  as  well 
as  by  causes,  and  to  be  finally  measured  and 
expounded  in  this  world  of  ideas. 

It  is  not  until  we  have  reached  the  forms  of  knowl- 
edge designated  humanities,  that  we  become  fully 
aware  of  this  uplift  of  incentives.  Economics, 
civics,  sociology,  aesthetics,  ethics,  history,  philo- 
sophy, religion  are  the  chief  domain  of  reasons; 
are,  indeed,  everywhere  interpenetrated  by  causes 
and  partially  conditioned  by  them,  yet  every- 
where shape  them  as  material  to  the  uses  of  mind. 
It  has  been  a  strange  delusion  on  the  part  of 


Knowledge  307 

scientific  inquiry,  which  has  led  it  to  an  opposition 
to  final  causes,  a  misnomer  for  reasons. 

While  it  is  true  that  a  ready  interjection  of 
fanciful  purposes  has  frequently  suspended  an 
investigation  into  physical  causes  and  has  resulted 
in  theories  which  had  little  or  no  hold  on  facts,  it 
is  also  true  that  an  alleged  pursuit  of  causes  has, 
at  times,  greatly  embarrassed  intellectual  in- 
quiry and  introduced  into  it  foreign  and  un- 
manageable elements.  Only  as  we  learn  to  unite 
and  to  blend  causes  and  reasons,  can  we  master  the 
world  in  which  we  live.  A  large  share  of  super- 
stitions has  been  nothing  more  than  a  reference  of 
events  to  fanciful  or  to  inapplicable  causes .  Causes 
remain  insoluble  in  themselves  and  must  receive 
their  ultimate  light  from  their  relation  to  purposes. 
Mathematics,  whose  connections  are  reasons 
not  causes,  are  the  great  solvent  of  the  physical 
world.  We  can  hardly  reach  valuable  conclusions 
in  the  material  world  until  we  can  introduce 
a  significant  unit  into  our  calculations.  We  then 
speed  our  steps  at  once  and  begin  to  carry  forward 
and  to  heap  up  the  fruits  of  inquiry.  The  depart- 
ments just  mentioned  rarely  admit  a  true  measur- 
ing unit,  and  the  units  we  do  introduce  have  only, 
as  in  statistics,  a  qualified  application.  This  fact 
is  to  be  regarded  not  as  rendering  these  fields  untill- 


308  Knowledge 

able,  but  as  indicating  the  changeable  purpose 
and  quality  of  our  labor.  Human  life  still  remains 
that  with  which  we  are  most  immediately  con- 
cerned, though  we  cannot  harness  it  up  with  the 
same  exact  and  final  statements  by  means  of 
which  we  bend  the  material  world  to  our  uses. 
All  aggregates  of  men  and  of  human  interests  are 
much  like  armies ;  we  can  state  their  number  but 
we  do  not  thereby  measure  their  power,  any  more 
than  when  we  enumerated  the  Greeks  who  met 
the  hosts  of  Persia.  Ethics  gives  us  the  ruling 
principles,  the  final  solvents,  in  all  departments  of 
action  that  pertain  primarily  to  man.  Economics, 
which  at  times  has  laid  claim  to  be  an  exact  science, 
has  done  much  mischief  by  separating  itself  from 
ethics,  and  by  making  the  present  state  of  society  a 
final  law  of  human  relations.  It  has  thus  come 
to  regard  the  destitution  and  degradation  of  labor 
as  a  result  inclosed  in  the  natural  order  of  history. 
It  has  thought  that  the  causes,  which  now  produce 
these  unfortunate  results,  will  bring  about  similar 
results  in  the  future;  that  existing  forms  and 
standards  of  action  are  ready  to  repeat  themselves 
indefinitely.  Competition,  with  no  definition  and 
no  limitation,  has  been  accepted  as  a  universal 
factor  in  economic  effort,  and  men,  in  the  exer- 
cise of  competition,  have  freely  set  aside  ethical 


Knowledge  309 

claims.  Competition  thus  allies  itself  to  robbery, 
as  emulation  prepares  the  way  for  envy.  The 
growth  of  society  in  physical  prosperity  must  keep 
company  with  ethical  growth,  or  there  will  come 
one  or  another  conflict  and  miscarriage. 

Civics  deals  of  necessity  with  a  great  variety  of 
conditions  favorable  and  unfavorable  to  the  wel- 
fare of  the  state,  and  has  occasion,  therefore,  to 
adapt  its  principles  to  every  prevalent  condition. 
This  fact  very  easily  leads  to  the  acceptance  of 
compromises  and  of  makeshifts,  as  if  they  pos- 
sessed in  themselves  permanent  authority.  This 
fact  makes  the  growth  of  civic  institutions  slow 
and  uncertain,  and  the  statesman  becomes  the  man 
who  has  the  fewest  ultimates  and  the  most  skill  in 
fitting  his  measures  to  the  immediate  wishes  and 
wants  of  men.  We  accept  democracy  as  a  ruling 
idea,  and 'yet,  in  its  application,  we  put  upon  it 
many  limitations,  until  in  use  it  becomes  a  mere 
shadow  of  itself.  As  politics  is  the  school  of  much 
thought  and  action,  it  easily  becomes  a  warping 
power  by  which  the  mind  is  turned  from  integrity 
and  made,  like  a  wheel  in  long  use,  incapable  of 
meeting  the  strain  of  critical  circumstances.  It 
plays  a  creditable  part  under  familiar  conditions, 
but  fails  when  the  exigencies  of  growth  arise.  One 
form  of  civic  action  may  express  one  class  of  con- 


310  Knowledge 

siderations,  and  yet  be  in  restraint  of  another  class 
of  equal  moment.  Individualism,  conceding  to 
each  person  the  largest  liberty,  may  yet  be  present 
in  undue  restraint  of  government  in  providing  the 
common  conditions  of  action;  may  result  in 
narrowing  down  the  general  activity  and  in  casting 
heavy  burdens  on  enterprise.  We  may  later  find, 
as  a  result  of  too  much  liberty,  that  certain  forms 
of  effort  have  taken  possession  of  the  entire  field 
and  that  many  individuals  have  been  robbed  of  all 
equality  of  opportunities.  Too  great  freedom  has 
thus  been  conceded  at  the  expense  of  freedom  it- 
self. The  community,  as  one  whole,  must  learn 
to  act  honestly  and  wisely  as  a  single  unit,  or  its 
general  welfare  and  the  welfare  of  its  several  parts 
will  suffer  remediless  loss. 

Railroads,  which  use  the  opportunities  that  fall 
to  them,  with  no  reference  to  the  equality  of  terms 
offered  to  the  community  at  large,  may  become  a 
heavier  burden  on  the  general  welfare  than  roads 
made  and  administered  by  the  public  at  nominally 
greater  cost.  Men  need  to  become  skillful  both 
in  combined  and  in  single  action.  Experience 
and  effort  are  the  school  of  both.  Good  govern- 
ment is  a  changeable  balance  between  senti- 
ments and  tendencies  that  find  their  ultimate 
reconciliation  in  the  welfare  of  all.  Not  the 


Knowledge  311 

welfare  of  one   but  of    all    is    the   criterion   of 
prosperity. 

Sociology,  which  has  much  the  same  problem  to 
work  out  under  wider  conditions,  must  find  its 
laws  of  present  activity  and  of  future  growth  in 
the  same  clear  and  sufficient  ethical  outlook. 
The  constituents  of  society,  and  society  itself, 
must  accept  the  laws  which  are  locked  up  in  the 
general  welfare.  There  has  been  a  false  feeling 
about  sociology  as  if  hitherto  we  had  been  igno- 
rant of  its  ruling  principles,  and  now  had  occasion 
to  wake  up  to  a  new  science.  The  case  is  rather 
that  we  have  occasion  to  do  over  and  to  do  better 
familiar  things,  giving  them  the  scope  and  au- 
thority of  which  we  have  all  along  been  partially 
cognizant.  The  chief  basis  of  the  better  harmony 
is  ethical.  Ethics  has  suffered  disparagement  in 
instruction  as  a  topic  that  could  not  be  taught.  If 
we  associate  ethics  with  a  few  simple  and  primary 
principles  there  is  some  truth  in  the  assertion,  but 
if  we  make  it  stand  for  the  correction  and  per- 
fection of  our  individual  and  joint  life;  for  the 
growth  of  civic  rights  and  privileges ;  for  the  meth- 
ods under  which  society  is  to  gain  strength  and 
integrity ;  for  the  measure  of  our  spiritual  powers 
and  hopes,  then  ethics  becomes  one  of  the  most 
expansive  and  needful  forms  of  thought.  Even 


312  Knowledge 

aesthetics,  closely  allied  as  it  is  to  ethics,  both 
having  in  charge  a  full  rendering  of  human  life, 
may  separate  itself  from  morals  and  may  strive 
under  impulses  of  its  own  to  set  up  hostile,  social 
standards.  Certain  as  this  effort  is  ultimately  to 
fail,  it  may,  for  the  time  being,  occasion  no  little 
confusion  of  thought.  The  good  and  the  beautiful 
are,  in  their  large  interplay,  inseparable  from  each 
other,  since  they  both  have  to  do  with  the  strength 
and  excellence  of  human  life.  Yet,  as  in  views 
of  the  same  object  from  opposite  sides,  clear 
definition  and  accurate  construction  are  requisite 
for  any  complete  reconciliation. 

But  the  supreme  force  of  ethical  law  is  best  seen 
in  history,  philosophy,  and  religion.  Philosophy, 
in  its  last  analysis  and  largest  service,  is  the  ex- 
position of  history,  and  of  the  authority  and  trend 
of  religious  faith.  Since  we  assign  ethics  a  first 
position  in  human  knowledge,  it  is  needful  that  we 
have  a  clear  idea  of  what  is  meant  by  it.  Ethics 
covers  all  that  both  utilitarians  and  intuitionalists 
have  to  say  about  it.  It  covers  the  accumulated 
experience  of  mankind,  touching  character  and 
conduct.  All  that  men  have  learned  by  pros- 
perity and  failure,  on  the  physical  side  and  on  the 
spiritual  side  of  life,  is  here  stored  up  in  this 
treasure-house  of  wisdom.  Equally  have  the 


Knowledge  313 

authority  and  sacredness  of  the  right  been  ex- 
pounded and  enforced  by  the  good  of  every  gen- 
eration. What  men  have  been  taught  concerning 
virtue,  and  what  they  themselves  have  seen,  are 
embraced  in  the  reflections  and  insights  of  ethics. 
An  ever-growing  light  has  fallen  on  the  paths  of 
men,  kindled  their  enthusiasm,  and  guided  them  in 
all  high  attainment. 

One  other  idea  brought  more  clearly  out  in  our 
generation  has  wrought,  side  by  side,  with  right, 
and  the  two  together,  growth  and  virtue,  evolution 
and  law,  have  covered  the  whole  universe.  A 
movement  that  suffers  no  exhaustion,  and  accepts 
no  limit  lays  hold  of  us  and  bears  us  forward. 
The  definition  of  evolution  and  the  uses  to  which 
it  has  been  put  have  been  very  different  in  our 
generation.  It  has  been  urged  by  those  who  were 
least  able  to  conceive  it  in  its  proper  breadth,  and  it 
has  been  suspiciously  rejected  by  those  who  have 
most  needed  its  aid.  It  has  been  made  to  stand 
for  the  self-sufficiency  of  physical  things,  in  a  tem- 
per anxious  to  expel  wisdom  from  the  world  and  to 
reduce  it  to  a  fortunate  combination  of  accidents. 
What  taxed  the  hand  of  wisdom  to  accomplish 
has  been  referred  with  a  light  heart  to  chance. 
Evolution  in  reality  stands  for  the  slow,  historic 
growth  of  the  creative  purpose,  its  steady  sub- 


Knowledge 

mission  to  human  thought.  It  at  once  gives 
needful  limitation  and  the  largest  scope  to  the 
human  mind,  and  leaves  it  to  travel  leisurely  a 
highway  stretching  all  through  the  kingdom  of 
knowledge.  It  gives  man  all  he  can  possibly  know 
and  do,  and  at  the  same  time  gathers  up  his 
treasures  of  wisdom  into  the  divine  mind,  himself 
to  abide  there  in  a  restful  temper.  He  sails  on 
an  ocean,  but  he  neither  fears  it  nor  is  straitened 
by  it. 

The  chief  difficulty  of  philosophy,  expounding 
the  world  to  itself,  is  in  apprehending  the  suprem- 
acy of  law:  law  that  guides  thought  and  action; 
law  that  moves  tangibly,  constructively,  freely 
through  the  physical  and  the  spiritual  world,  the 
home  of  human  effort  and  human  knowledge  and 
human  hope.  He  who  denies  himself  this  idea 
of  evolution,  darkens  down  the  universe  until  he 
can  hardly  grope  his  way  along ;  he  that  accepts  it, 
lightens  his  steps  with  the  rising  sun  spreading 
warmth  and  revelation  everywhere.  As  darkness 
makes  pallid  the  body  and  obstructs  its  action,  so 
does  unwisdom  weaken  the  spirit  and  narrow  in  its 
hopes. 

The  lessons  "of  history  are  those  of  philosophy, 
standing  in  the  light  of  virtue,  feeling  its  con- 
quering strength  as  it  pushes  its  way  above  the 


Knowledge  315 

horizon  into  a  self -achieved  and  self -sustained  life. 
History,  looked  on  otherwise  than  as  an  evolution 
of  better  things,  is  a  sad,  disconsolate  record  of 
evils,  a  story  of  injustice  and  violence,  appetite  and 
lusts,  of  disappointments  and  despair  that  suffer 
no  real  losses  and  make  no  real  gains.  It  is  only 
as  we  see  what  the  seed  is  that  has  been  planted 
that  we  discover  the  germination  and  growth  that 
have  followed  on  the  promise  that  lies  before  us,  and 
that  we  come  to  feel  that  the  world  contains  a  divine 
purpose  which  is  ready  to  explain  and  to  justify  all 
things.  Slavery  is  gone ;  war  is  disappearing ;  and 
the  brood  of  violence  have  slunk  away  into  dark- 
ness. Wisdom,  goodwill,  pure  thought  are  be- 
coming the  handmaids  of  life;  production,  peace, 
plenty  are  spreading  abroad;  the  day  has  come, 
and  we  have  a  right  to  forecast  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven.  We  are  able  to  pray  with  immeasur- 
able desire,  "Thy  Kingdom  come."  A  philosophy 
which  has  correctly  expounded  the  past  approaches 
the  future  with  hope.  Futile,  disastrous,  and  de- 
graded as  much  may  still  seem  to  us,  there  has, 
none  the  less,  been  at  the  heart  of  the  world  a  wise 
and  sufficient  purpose,  pushing  it  upward.  This 
growth,  this  promise,  it  is  the  province  of  philo- 
sophy to  lay  open,  to  expound,  to  verify.  If  it  fails 
to  do  this  our  experience  becomes  commonplace, 


3*6  Knowledge 

disappointing,  painful.  We  know  not  what  to 
propose  in  the  progress  of  events,  and  our  move- 
ment is  from  darkness  into  darkness.  It  belongs 
to  philosophy,  the  most  comprehensive  and  re- 
vealing form  of  knowledge,  to  unite  human  thought 
and  human  activity,  the  present  to  the  future,  and 
to  knit  events  into  restful,  joyful  labor.  Philoso- 
phy, the  most  untiring  use  of  our  powers,  is  reve- 
lation. Men  long  for  revelation,  pass  into  blind 
adoration  of  what  they  believe  to  be  revelation. 
Any  voice  that  discloses  the  future,  that  unites  and 
directs  effort,  will  in  a  blind  way  awaken  attention, 
will  call  out  devotion,  and  will  impart  more  consola- 
tion, more  power,  wealth,  or  knowledge.  Philoso- 
phy is  so  human,  that  even  when  it  is  the  highest 
product  of  knowledge,  many  are  loath  to  call  it 
revelation ;  though  revelation,  whensoever  and  how- 
soever it  comes,  must  appeal  to  this  same  rational 
apprehension  if  its  work  is,  in  any  fitting  way, 
to  be  done.  If  revelation  is  to  fall  as  light  on  the 
life  that  occupies  us,  it  must  reach  us  through 
the  paths  of  philosophy.  Here  it  receives  the 
concentration  and  diffusion  that  render  it  in- 
telligible. It  is  to  philosophy  that  the  mind, 
looking  anxiously  for  the  solutions  of  knowledge, 
guarding  itself  against  falling  short  of  the  mark  or 
going  beyond  it,  must  look.  No  other  attitude  is 


Knowledge  317 

possible.  It  is  philosophy  that  must  justify  revela- 
tion and  must  make  use  of  it.  There  is  but  one 
window  that  opens  heavenward,  that  discloses  the 
near  and  the  far,  the  earth  and  the  stars,  and  en- 
ables us  to  abide  in,  and  to  act  with  the  world  of 
which  we  are  a  part;  and  that  window  is  philo- 
sophy. All  spirits,  whatever  their  claims,  are 
subject  to  the  same  test  of  reason. 

But  it  may  be  thought  that  this  assertion  is  an 
unwarranted  exaltation  of  human  reason;  that 
what  we  truly  need  and  are  seeking  for  is  the  word 
of  God.  Concede  it,  but  to  whom  is  this  word 
spoken  and  how  do  we  attain  unto  its  wisdom? 
As  long  as  the  human  mind  is  to  be  the  medium  of 
apprehension,  so  long  must  it  be  able  to  discern 
divine  things,  to  separate  them  from  all  other 
things.  There  is  nothing  in  any  divine  word 
which  does  not  owe  its  guiding  and  directive  power 
to  the  mind  to  which  it  is  addressed.  If  there  is 
giving  there  is  also  receiving.  If  there  is  some- 
thing to  be  known  there  is  also  the  capability  of 
knowing  it.  Man  cannot  know  and  not  know  at 
the  same  time,  receive  the  truth  and  not  perceive 
it.  Doubtless  there  is  much  hesitation  and 
stumbling  in  the  mastery  of  knowledge ;  men  have 
thought  themselves  in  possession  of  religious 
truth  when  nothing  but  its  empty  shell  was  found 


3i  8  Knowledge 

with  them;  but  these  difficulties  are  most  quickly 
overcome  by  seeing  and  by  encountering  them. 
The  fact  and  the  remedy  are  perfectly  familiar  to 
us.  We  have  no  occasion  to  beat  about  the  bush  in 
search  of  them.  All  human  experience  is  wrought 
out  under  the  possibility  of  error  and  the  possi- 
bility of  truth.  What  we  know  is  of  no  more 

value  to  us  than  what  we  are  yet  to  know.     Growth 

• 
in  knowledge  is  the  one  fortunate  condition  of  the 

finite  mind.  It  involves  a  constant  possession  of 
something  less  than  the  whole,  but  also  a  stretch- 
ing forth  toward  the  whole.  "I  count  not  my- 
self to  have  apprehended,  but  this  one  thing  I  do, 
forgetting  the  things  which  are  behind,  and 
reaching  forth  unto  those  things  which  are  before, 
I  press  forward  to  the  mark  of  the  prize  of  the 
high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus."  This  is  the 
secret  of  growth,  the  controlling  fact  of  evolution. 
Attainment  passes  into  attainment.  The  moment 
we  use  any  gain  otherwise  it  at  once  begins  to  be 
lost  to  us.  We  owe  much  to  the  Catholic  Church, 
but  we  are  particularly  indebted  to  it  for  reducing 
the  notion  of  infallibility  to  a  practical  absurd- 
ity. Christian  faith  makes  no  mystery  out  of 
the  union  of  the  known  and  the  unknown,  the 
partial  and  the  complete.  "  Be  ye  perfect  even  as 
your  Father  in  heaven  is  perfect."  The  true  hori- 


Knowledge  319 

zon  dips  always  below  the  sight.  If  the  perfec- 
tionist says,  I  am  perfect,  he  simply  shows  that  he 
does  not  yet  apprehend  the  primary  ideas  in  the 
Christian  vocabulary.  The  riddle  in  the  physical 
world,  that  we  can  cover  no  given  space  since  it 
must  be  taken  by  halves  and  a  half  will  always  re- 
main, disappears  at  once  under  motion.  The 
approach  to  profound  truths  comes  under  the  same 
solution,  Go  forward.  We  add  phase  to  phase, 
vision  to  vision,  and  all  approach  opens  up  the 
beyond  in  stimulating  and  satisfying  disclosure. 
This  is  the  power  of  our  lives.  The  earth  beneath 
us  and  the  heavens  above  are  never  exhausted. 
The  more  we  exact  of  them  the  better  they  render 
their  service.  The  mind  is  opened  to  revelation 
by  revelation.  When  we  are  most  aware  of  its 
power  we  are  most  aware  of  its  limitations. 

This  scope  of  proof  in  spiritual  things  is  diverse 
from  what  it  is  in  more  limited,  phenomenal 
things ;  not  diverse  from  what  it  is  when  we  touch 
final  things;  even  in  science,  it  is  only  a  little  less 
tangible  than  what  we  are  accustomed  to  in  our 
daily  concerns.  A  friend  asked  Charles  A.  Dana, 
in  his  later  life,  a  man  of  large  experience  and 
quick  observation,  whether  he  saw  any  proof  of 
immortality  which  could  be  offered  in  a  court  of 
justice.  He  responded,  "Not  a  scintilla."  This 


320  Knowledge 

answer  involves  insight  and  ignorance,  each  in  an 
unusual  degree.  There  are  no  crass  phenomenal 
facts,  such  as  receive  discussion  in  a  court  room, 
often  at  much  length  and  most  unsatisfactorily, 
which  can  be  presented  in  behalf  of  immortality. 
If  we  wish  to  know  whether  this  man  is  a  murderer, 
a  thief,  or  a  robber;  whether  he  has  defrauded  his 
neighbors  in  some  new  way,  which  the  law  does  not 
wink  at,  we  shall  offer  proof  fitted  to  the  assertion 
and  will  often  find  ourselves  in  confusion.  In  this 
general  darkness  the  least  scintilla  may  be  grate- 
fully received.  No  such  juncture  and  no  such 
proof  are  present  in  the  ultimate  tribunal  of 
reason,  when  we  raise  the  questions  whether 
spirit  lies  at  the  center  of  the  universe?  whether  we 
as  spirits  have  an  eternal  portion  in  this  universe? 
Many  little  sparks  of  light  may  be  struck  out  of 
events,  as  when  the  steel  hits  the  flint;  but  these 
leave  us  with  confused  and  fearful  impressions, 
when  we  ask  whether  we  are  in  the  presence  of  God 
and  share  his  counsels.  The  whole  world  in  its 
infinity  of  parts,  harmony  of  construction,  and 
steady  fulfillment  of  purpose  must  be  brought  to 
mind  as  a  definite  proof  of  the  presence  of  God. 
The  scope  of  human  life;  what  has  already  been 
given  to  it;  what  its  hopes  and  possibilities  are; 
how  far  the  universe  calls  out  and  sustains  these 


Knowledge  321 

hopes  and  is  fulfilled  by  them  must  come  to  our 
thoughts  and  overburden  us  with  conviction  be- 
fore we  can  rise  heavenward,  as  an  eagle  lifts  him- 
self in  the  air  because  it  is  his  home.  Philosophy 
must  exalt  the  mind  and  be  exalted  by  the  mind 
before  it  can  meet  the  questions  of  faith  and  be 
borne  prosperously  forward  by  the  strong  words  of 
reason.  It  is  in  vain  that  we  raise  great  questions, 
if  we  cannot  match  them  with  great  powers.  It  is 
not  a  question  of  scintillas  but  of  broad  daylight. 
The  essential  grandeur  of  the  human  spirit  is  seen 
in  the  unexpected  gladness  with  which  it  moves 
among  unseen  things,  and  brings  conviction  and 
contentment  to  itself  from  all  the  world. 

One,  who  is  wandering  in  the  mazes  of  belief,  who 
has  lost  the  clue  of  truth,  may  seek  for  a  miracle 
with  which  to  settle  his  disturbed  thoughts. 
Miracles  are  not  to  be  objected  to  as  impossible. 
In  substance  all  events,  when  we  reach  their  deep- 
est force,  are  miraculous.  The  miracle,  as  a  de- 
tached wonder,  disappears  in  the  world  in  order 
that  we  may  walk  in  the  steady  light  of  events 
and  may  know  where  we  are.  A  flash  of  lightning 
dazzles  us  and  at  the  same  time  bewilders  us. 
We  need  no  miracle  by  means  of  which  to  move 
about  in  the  daylight.  If  we  seem  to  need  it,  it 
is  because  we  have  missed  the  force  of  events.  If 

at 


322  Knowledge 

the  mind  is  confused  by  skepticism  or  by  supersti- 
tion, our  easiest  relief  may  seem  to  be  the  miracle, 
and  yet  the  miracle  may  only  add  to  the  confusion. 
If  the  fleece  of  Gideon  is  first  wet  with  dew,  he 
then  wishes  it,  a  second  time,  to  be  dry,  and  neither 
in  the  one  case  nor  the  other  has  he  any  sufficient 
knowledge  of  the  circumstances  with  which  he  is 
dealing.  Miracles  offer  no  sober  working-plan  of 
action.  The  mind,  in  the  first  instance,  is  thrown 
off  its  normal  pivot  of  action;  and,  at  the  second 
remove,  we  are  confused  by  all  those  errors  into 
which  men  fall  when  they  think  themselves  dealing 
with  the  supernatural.  The  method  of  the  world 
is  a  regular  procedure  under  law,  and  if  this  is  lost 
we  fail  to  find  ourselves  until  it  is  restored.  Prayer 
rests  on  an  entirely  different  basis ;  the  constant 
interplay  of  physical  and  spiritual  forces.  If  we 
long  to  evade  or  if  we  strive  to  evade  this  interac- 
tion, the  world  becomes  unmanageable.  In  prayer 
we  set  in  motion  in  ourselves  and  in  others  spiritual 
energies ;  these  act  on  physical  things  and  the  ac- 
tions and  reactions  of  the  two  worlds,  material  and 
immaterial,  are  brought  into  play.  The  formula 
of  prayer  is, ' '  Thy  will  be  done ' ' ;  that  is,  the  results 
are  to  be  those  ruled  by  the  wisdom  of  God,  ruled 
by  the  good  order  of  the  world. 

The  further  inquiry  concerning  knowledge,  which 


Knowledge  323 

we  have  assigned  ourselves,  is  its  ultimate  test. 
The  only  proof  of  knowing  is  knowing.  If  a 
pupil,  having  finished  a  demonstration  in  geometry, 
were  to  ask,  "  How  do  I  know  this  to  be  true?  " 
we  should  think  the  question  an  indication  of  de- 
ficiency in  ordinary  intelligence.  While  our  senses 
confirm  one  another,  they  still  give  their  own  pe- 
culiar data.  If  the  eyes  fail  us,  we  have  no  second 
pair  with  which  to  replace  them.  Our  confirma- 
tion lies  simply  in  repetition.  Men  are  far  more 
likely  to  have  an  unreasonable  confidence  in  their 
conclusions,  than  they  are  unduly  to  distrust  them. 
The  first  danger  and  the  constant  danger  in  judg- 
ment is  not  the  insufficiency  of  the  power  itself,  but 
the  inadequacy  of  the  data  given  to  it.  These  we 
may  well  constantly  enlarge  and  correct.  This  is 
preeminently  true  in  philosophical  and  religious 
opinions.  We  make  some  partial  or  arbitrary 
supposition  as  to  the  data  involved  in  our  spiritual 
problems,  and  we  suit  our  dogma  to  these  in- 
correct premises.  Our  doctrines  are  framed,  like 
a  hasty  alignment,  to  match  relations  which  do  not 
exist.  We  have  occasion,  therefore,  constantly  to 
refit  our  conclusions  to  the  facts  before  us. 

The  world,  in  its  physical,  social,  spiritual  facts, 
is  our  text.  This  text  is  to  be  so  studied  and 
so  understood  as  freely  to  modify  our  conclusions. 


324  Knowledge 

We  are  daily  coming  to  a  more  extended  and  just 
apprehension  of  spiritual  facts,  and  out  of  this 
growth  of  knowledge  should  grow  corrected 
opinions  and  actions.  The  text  we  have  to  con- 
strue is  one  of  great  extent  and  large  import,  and 
we  have  occasion  correspondingly  to  increase  and 
to  deepen  our  knowledge  concerning  it.  The  test 
of  our  rendering  is  a  growing  concurrence  with  the 
inner  and  the  outer  light  which  falls  upon  the  pages 
before  us.  No  partial  agreement,  nor  one  we  have 
been  taught  to  entertain,  will  meet  our  want. 
We  have  occasion  for  a  broader  and  ever  broader 
outlook  on  life,  both  as  it  is  and  as  it  should  be,  in 
order  to  sustain  and  to  confirm  our  conclusions  con- 
cerning it.  We  are  sustaining  them  in  the  use  of  our 
own  faculties,  but  we  are  confirming  them  by  a  con- 
stant reference  to  the  events  that  are  being  shaped 
by  the  divine  hand  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
Our  Lord's  Prayer  is  a  synopsis  of  Christian  faith 
and  Christian  desire.  It  opens  with  three  peti- 
tions which  plead  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
These  are  followed  by  one  invoking  the  universal, 
divine  Providence,  accompanied  by  one  for  free 
forgiveness.  The  prayer  then  concludes  with  a 
desire  not  to  be  led  into  temptation  or,  being  in, 
to  be  delivered  from  its  power.  In  this  prayer 
the  aims  and  wants  of  human  life  are  concisely  ex- 


Knowledge  325 

pressed.  Like  the  two  commandments,  one  half 
is  occupied  with  our  Godward  duties  and  the 
other  half  with  our  earthward  relations.  Having 
the  aim  of  Christian  life  before  us,  we  must  judge 
all  things  as  they  tend  to  fulfill  it  and  to  be  fulfilled 
by  it. 

In  the  outset  we  regarded  all  explanations  of 
human  conduct  as  bearing  on  knowledge.  Knowl- 
edge current  among  men,  and  the  conclusions  now 
reached  lead  us  to  test  all  progress  by  its  relation  to 
this  common  possession.  Our  conclusions  must  be 
in  furtherance  of  the  general  welfare  and  in  ex- 
pression of  the  principles  on  which  it  proceeds. 
Our  experience  simply  leads  us  to  a  better  appre- 
hension of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  a  conformity  to 
it  in  thought  and  in  action.  Personal  aberrations, 
the  eccentricity  of  individual  thought,  give  way 
before  the  grand  movement  toward  the  general 
welfare,  which  cannot  be  long  delayed  and  in 
reference  to  which  we  cannot  be  permanently 
mistaken. 

The  world  thus  becomes  a  constant  school  of 
fresh  experiences.  We  no  longer  have  occasion 
that  any  one  should  tell  us  of  eternal  verities,  of  the 
actual  procedure  of  events,  for  we  have  seen  them 
and  studied  them  for  ourselves,  and  have  before  us 
the  divine  plan  in  which  they  are  rendered.  If  we 


326  Knowledge 

lack  this  revelation,  the  defect  can  in  no  way  be 
supplied,  for  it  is  to  these  very  conclusions  that 
all  growth  leads  us.  Each  man  is  left  with  the 
truth,  left  with  the  world  and  with  God,  and  the 
only  question  is  what  use  can  he  make  of  these 
conditions.  There  is  a  path  before  the  feet  of 
every  man  among  the  things  repellent  to  the 
divine  mind  and  the  things  in  conformity  to  it. 
This  path  he  can  discover  and  can  pursue  only  by 
personal,  persevering,  and  instructed  effort.  By 
means  of  it  he  draws  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  high- 
way of  revelation.  Every  man  works  his  way  into 
and  works  his  way  out  of  human  knowledge,  and 
stands  with  all  his  fellows  before  this  one  reve- 
lation of  God's  making  which  men  are  everywhere 
deciphering. 

The  test  of  knowledge  is  sometimes  said  to  be 
pragmatism.  This  assertion  is  not  so  much  in- 
correct as  it  is  unenlightening.  We  have  still  to 
define  the  facts  in  their  variety  and  complexity. 
We  have  to  do  with  physical  and  spiritual  phe- 
nomena constantly  interpenetrating  each  other. 
We  ourselves  are  such  a  combination  and  the 
world  is  a  similar  complex.  If  we  treat  inade- 
quately or  if  we  deny  either  of  these  elements,  one  or 
the  other  of  the  wings  by  which  we  fly  is  maimed. 
The  world  is  to  be  perceptively  studied  on  its 


Knowledge  327 

physical  side  and  interpreted  on  its  spiritual  side. 
If  we  neglect  the  first  form  of  knowledge,  we  are 
soon  lost  in  the  mists  of  speculation ;  if  we  neglect 
the  second  form  of  knowledge,  the  sun  sinks  below 
the  horizon,  and  we  are  left  to  make  what  way 
we  can  among  physical  facts,  half -seen  and  half- 
understood. 


ROMANS  I:  17 

PHE  just  shall  live  by  faith":  this  passage 
combines  three  of  the  most  central,  ex- 
pansive, and  powerful  of  human  conceptions, 
justice,  life,  and  faith.  We  wish  to  speak  of  these 
ideas  and  of  their  dependence  on  one  another. 

Justice  in  its  more  restricted  form  stands  for  the 
balance  of  human  thought,  as  it  weighs  between 
men's  questions  of  right  and  wrong.  Thence  it 
comes  to  mean  a  general  estimate  of  the  con- 
siderations which  are  included  in  any  intellectual 
problem;  it  thus  conveys  the  idea  of  intellectual 
integrity.  Still  further  it  may  pass  on  to  a  recon- 
ciliation of  the  motives  and  issues  of  conduct  and 
represent  that  rightfulness  of  righteousness  by 
which  thought,  feeling,  action  settle  down  into 
sound  reason.  We  start  early  with  this  sense  of 
justice,  and  put  to  rights  our  fellow-men  in  their 
disagreements,  one  with  another.  Thence  we 
mount  up  into  a  reconciliation  of  conduct,  and 
slowly  reach,  in  the  last  stretch  of  vision,  that 

rectitude  of  purpose  which  enables  us  to  handle 

328 


Romans  1 :  1 7  329 

all  spiritual  values.  For  a  long  time  we  are  tossed 
about  in  a  troubled  atmosphere  until  we  can  settle 
down  to  a  firm  movement,  finding  a  safe  way  amid 
surrounding  dangers.  So  the  bird  masters  the  air 
which  sustains  it.  Every  bone,  muscle,  feather, 
quill;  every  line  of  form,  straight  or  curved,  helps 
this  native  of  the  air  to  make  of  it  an  instrument 
of  life. 

Justice,  in  like  manner,  is  the  power  of  the  mind 
in  the  spiritual  world  among  the  favoring  and  the 
conflicting  conditions  which  determine  its  flight. 
Justice  of  spiritual  forces  to  spiritual  facts,  the 
soul  making  way  among  the  thoughts  of  God,  this 
justice  which  renders  a  man  just,  well-behaved  in 
all  the  movements  of  mind — this  justice  is  the 
harmony  of  the  laws  of  our  rational  activity. 

The  second  conception,  life,  is  the  most  sig- 
nificant thing  we  find  on  the  earth.  It  clothes, 
beautifies,  and  possesses  the  world.  It  does  this  in 
large  and  in  small  divisions,  as  in  the  vegetable,  the 
animal,  the  rational  kingdom ;  until,  like  the  various 
arms  of  a  great  army,  it  conquers  the  world  itself, 
covers  all  spaces,  spreads  through  all  times,  and 
converts  visible  things  into  the  uses  and  potencies 
of  living  things.  Man  rises  above  the  conditions 
of  physical  well-being  to  a  point  of  observation 
from  which  all  things  visible  and  invisible,  natural 


330  Romans  1 :  1 7 

and  spiritual,  may  be  explored,  expounded,  and  en- 
joyed. Life  in  its  lowest  forms,  transcending  us; 
in  its  highest  forms,  over-matching  us; life,  which 
we  wonder  at,  degrade,  and  exalt,  is  the  consumer  of 
all  wealth,  the  accumulator  of  all  powers ;  that;  by 
means  of  which  we  come  to  know  what  is  good  and 
to  attain  it ;  this  is  life,  the  promise  of  all  pleasures, 
the  harbinger  of  all  hope.  If  we  waste  it,  we  lose 
ourselves;  if  we  curse  it,  we  curse  ourselves;  if  we 
win  it,  we  win  all  things. 

Faith  is  the  third  item  in  our  trilogy;  without  it, 
justice  and  life  fall  apart ;  the  truths  most  normal 
to  the  mind  break  up  in  confusion  and  disappear  in 
darkness.  Faith  is  the  confidence  which  mind  in- 
spires in  mind,  the  proof  that  mind  gives  to  mind. 

Much  knowledge  turns  on  the  relation  of  physi- 
cal events  to  one  another.  When  we  see  one  thing 
understandingly,  we  also  see  other  things  which  are 
to  arise  from  it.  This  knowledge  we  term  science, 
and  congratulate  ourselves  upon  it.  When  we 
come  to  deal  with  men,  the  case  is  altered.  They 
may  disappoint  our  expectations  or  they  may  go 
much  beyond  them,  and  in  neither  case  do  we  feel 
that  any  law  has  been  broken.  We  are  in  a  re- 
gion of  possibilities,  and  must  wait  on  their 
development.  This  feeling  is  common  to  us  all, 
that  there  is  more  in  every  man  than  our  measure- 


Romans  I:  17  331 

merits  have  given  us;  energy  once  aroused  may 
quite  outstrip  us.  This  belief  we  term  faith,  a 
feeling  at  no  moment  perfectly  verifiable,  but  wait- 
ing the  disclosure  of  events.  Potency,  possibility, 
prophecy,  delinquency,  disappointment,  defeat, 
are  all  open  to  us  when  we  have  to  do  with  men. 
The  power  which  gives  the  mind  footing  in  the 
spiritual  world  is  faith,  a  rational  anticipation  of 
the  events  that  may  spring  up  out  of  the  feelings 
and  thoughts  of  men.  By  faith  we  penetrate  the 
spiritual  world  as  by  inquiry  we  understand  the 
physical  world.  Faith  is  not  science,  yet  by 
means  of  it  rationally  exercised,  we  handle 
successfully  the  actions  of  men:  changeable,  yet 
apprehensible;  indeterminate,  yet  manageable. 

This  power  to  enter  the  spiritual  world  broadens 
our  lives,  and  makes  them  commensurate  with 
the  events  about  us;  enables  us  with  the  poise  of 
justice  to  deal  with  the  motives  and  the  actions  of 
men.  We  thus  understand  conduct  as  it  passes 
into  character,  and  character  as  it  shapes  itself 
into  social  institutions. 

This  faith  we  must  dwell  upon  for  a  moment  as 
the  substance  of  the  assertion  of  the  text,  "The 
just  shall  live  by  faith."  The  simplest  form  of 
faith  is  faith  in  ourselves,  our  possibilities  of 
achievement;  it  may  be  marred  by  vanity  and 


332  Romans  1 :  1 7 

yet  there  is  no  uplift  in  action,  no  exaltation 
in  character  without  a  sense  of  spiritual  power, 
without  the  framing  of  a  new  purpose  to  which 
we  lash  ourselves  as  to  a  last  hope.  There  is  noth- 
ing more  certain  in  the  record  of  history  than 
that  men  have  not  accepted  one  another  as  a  com- 
bination of  physical  forces,  as  a  compound  of 
appetites  and  passions,  but  have  framed  their 
judgments  of  character,  have  bestowed  praise  and 
blame  on  grounds  of  large-mindedness,  of  actions 
which  raise  men  above  animal  life  and  make 
them  partners  in  a  world  of  spiritual  possessions. 
The  ideals  men  have  cherished  may  have  been 
limited  and  faulty,  but  they  have  been  an  element 
in  all  historic  estimates,  in  admiration  and  in  rev- 
erence. We  have  embodied  them  in  our  poetry 
and  fiction  simply  that  we  might  admire  them  or 
scorn  them,  and  might  have  the  pleasure  of  a  spir- 
itual judgment.  An  ideal  means  struggle ;  a  grasp- 
ing at  something  wider  and  higher;  a  new  motive 
and  a  better  defense  in  our  lives,  that  appetites 
and  passions  and  interests  may  be  driven  back  and 
worsted  in  the  battle  of  life.  Siren  songs  have 
always  floated  in  the  air,  but  have  been  made 
futile  by  the  voice  of  faith  speaking  of  the  things 
above  and  beyond  them.  Self-denial,  holding  fast 
by  its  own  judgment,  confident  of  the  superiority 


Romans  1 :  17  333 

of  superior  things,  standing  firm  behind  its  own 
shield  of  faith,  has  stood  fast  in  its  own  integrity. 

How  utterly,  on  the  other  hand,  have  the  men 
of  unrestrained  appetites  and  ungoverned  passions 
been  overthrown  in  the  end,  no  matter  how  long 
that  end  was  in  coming!  Like  men  swept  down 
by  a  troop  of  cavalry,  they  have  been  not  merely 
pierced  through  but  trodden  under  foot,  with 
broken  limbs  and  all  horrible  details  of  insult  and 
injury.  In  spite  of  all  the  miserable  ways  in  which 
men  justify  themselves,  in  spite  of  the  short-sighted 
and  distorted  visions  they  direct  toward  events, 
these  at  length  shine  out  in  the  record  of  human 
conduct,  as  the  sun  at  evening  breaks  and  scatters 
the  heavy  clouds  which  have  hidden  it  all  the  day. 
The  ground  of  all  abiding  honor  is  faith,  the 
confidence  of  the  mind  in  virtue.  When  we  win 
praise  or  bestow  it  or  when  we  have  a  cheerful  sense 
of  work  well  done,  it  is  the  victory  of  faith,  the 
light  of  virtue  that  shines  about  us. 

Another  form  of  faith  arises  in  our  communal 
life,  the  life  that  we  frame  together  in  society,  con- 
tracting, dissolving,  and  reconstructing,  hoping 
ever  to  reach  something  more  perfect.  From 
Plato's  Republic  to  American  democracy  we  have 
been  in  search  of  some  sufficient  form  of  social  life. 
The  socialist  works  out  minutely  the  details  of 


334  Romans  I  :  17 

action  by  which  men  should  be  bound  together. 
Each  has  his  suitable  part  and  his  suitable  reward. 
Society  is  to  be  perfect  in  the  measure  in  which 
men  aid  one  another,  and  imperfect,  as  they 
embarrass  and  thwart  one  another.  The  moment 
any  person  or  any  class  or  any  nation  or  any  race 
reach  a  barrier  set  up  by  their  fellow-men  to  cut 
short  their  progress,  they  resent  the  restraint  put 
upon  them  and  raise  once  more  the  cry  of  liberty, 
the  liberty  which  God  has  given  and  by  which 
every  man  enters  into  his  own. 

This  question  of  liberty  arises  at  many  points, 
a  liberty,  which  government  is  constantly  sinning 
against  and  which  the  socialist  sets  aside  once  for 
all.  Brave  words  have  been  spoken  for  it,  as  in  our 
Declaration  of  Independence,  while  yet  there  re- 
main among  us  many  points  at  which  we  hold 
fast  to  the  old,  old  doctrine  of  subjection.  The 
question  still  presses  in,  Is  society  at  its  very  core 
democratic?  Can  we  ever  hope  to  come  under  the 
law  of  liberty,  and  to  find  that  law  one  of  univer- 
sal prosperity?  Are  human  interests  so  in  harmony 
with  one  another  that  they  can  be  pursued  together? 
Can  each  man  gain  and  not  rob  his  neighbor? 
These  questions  may  be  answered  in  the  affirma- 
tive only  on  ethical  grounds.  It  is  by  virtue  of 
ethical  integrity  that  we  find  our  profiting  wrapped 


Romans  I  :  17  335 

up  in  the  profiting  of  others.  Here  enters  faith: 
we  have  faith  in  the  moral  law,  the  law  of  love; 
we  believe  that  God  has  so  made  men  that  they 
can  and  must  regard  one  another.  There  is  no 
other  path  that  always  ascends.  This  and  this 
only  is  the  Kingdom.  What  a  wonderful  world  we 
are  in,  how  perverted  and  yet  how  capable  of  cor- 
rection !  Our  welfare  is  measured,  not  by  service 
done  to  us,  but  by  service  done  by  us.  Each  life 
is  filled  to  its  full  measure  by  the  life  of  others. 
Only  now  and  then,  here  and  there,  do  we  see  it. 
To  see  everywhere  and  all  the  time,  is  faith. 
Democracy  is  good  for  all  men,  the  bright  man 
and  the  dull  man.  It  is  the  evangel  of  liberty  for 
the  race  of  men.  All  turns  on  insight,  and  the 
exercise  of  this  insight  with  a  scrupulous  rec- 
ognition of  the  wants  and  the  capabilities  of  men. 
This  is  the  problem  for  all  places  and  for  all  times. 
The  American  people  can  attain  justice,  the  even, 
self -poised  mind,  only  by  faith,  faith  in  the  divine 
plan  and  in  the  divine  endowment.  They  are  not 
to  stagger  on,  as  one  who  has  suffered  a  heavy  blow, 
under  the  logic  of  wealth-getting  and  of  power 
that  is  to  be  protected.  This  is  what  we  seem  to 
be  doing.  If  we  are  to  live  as  a  nation  it  is  to  be 
done  by  the  defense  of  democracy,  carried  forward 
along  its  own  lines  to  its  fitting  consummation. 


336  Romans  I  :  17 

The  cry  of  liberty  which  we  ourselves  have  raised, 
the  liberty  with  God,  liberty  for  ourselves,  liberty 
with  our  fellow-men,  must  come  echoing  back  to  us 
from  every  quarter  of  the  horizon.  Thus  we  are  to 
win  life,  to  win  the  poise  of  justice,  our  faith  flinch- 
ing not  for  a  moment  as  we  come  to  the  methods 
and  counsels  of  our  common  Father. 

Herein  we  have  the  final  form  of  faith,  faith 
in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  the  most  comprehensive  and  perfect 
form  of  human  society.  The  will  of  God  is  to 
be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven.  Many 
seem  to  entertain  the  petition  and  yet  not  to  under- 
stand its  import.  They  have  not  worked  out  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven.  The  vision  is  remote,  the 
good  is  false  and  imaginary. 

There  is  one  exception  to  this  assertion,  social- 
ism. Socialism,  as  a  theory  of  society,  is  a  re- 
markable testimony  to  the  range  of  ideas  in  men's 
minds.  The  fatal  defect  is  that  it  is  worked  out 
like  a  theorem  on  a  black-board  with  no  living 
development  under  it  that  turns  it  into  a  reality. 
When  men  can  handle  this  social  mechanism 
successfully,  it  will  come  of  its  own  accord ;  every 
man's  head  and  heart  and  hand  will  be  committed 
to  it.  It  will  not  lie  like  a  discarded  babe  on  the 
stone  steps  of  a  hospital.  We  need  the  spiritually 


Romans  1 :  1 7  337 

developed  man;  and  all  that  is  good  in  socialism 
will  come  with  him.  The  trouble  is,  when  we  ask 
for  a  living,  breathing  man,  we  are  given  a  mani- 
kin. We  need  justice  and  faith  united  in  life, 
and  socialism  gives  us  a  diagram.  The  channels 
of  activity  will  be  quick  in  coming  when  we  have 
an  impetuous  stream  to  pour  into  them.  It  is 
not  the  golden  streets,  which  make  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven,  but  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  which 
renders  fit  the  golden  streets.  The  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  fails  us  because  we  have  not  as  yet  our 
lives  near  enough  to  it  to  understand  it.  Love 
is  a  far-off  sun  in  the  heavens,  so  obscured  by 
clouds  that  we  do  not  feel  its  warmth.  When 
our  half -frozen  limbs  are  fully  thawed,  we  shall 
nimbly  walk  the  earth.  This  is  the  office  of  faith, 
belief  in  the  Kingdom ;  our  lives  can  not  otherwise 
be  suitably  quickened.  We  have,  or  seem  to  hf.ve, 
faith,  but  not  such  as  we  live  by.  The  sheen  of  the 
world  is  not  the  reflection  of  our  spiritual  light. 
We  move  about  in  a  twilight  of  creed  and  custom, 
objects  becoming  slowly  visible  in  the  dawning 
day. 

Faith  in  its  several  forms,  in  ourselves,  in  our 
fellow-men,  in  society,  in  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven, 
can  alone  dissolve  our  thoughts  and  make  them 
flow  upward  in  a  living  experience.  So  we  enter 


338  Romans  I  :  17 

into  asupersensuous  life,  which  overflows  and  trans- 
figures this  sensuous  world.  When  we  scorn  our 
lives,  we  do  it  because  of  the  want  of  suitable  ideas 
with  which  to  glorify  them.  When  we  begin  to 
patch  them  up  with  some  filament  of  truth  filched 
from  another  world,  we  may  make  the  rent  worse 
because  we  have  not  taken  to  ourselves  enough  of 
the  divine  plan.  If  we  creep  about  like  worms,  we 
have  less  justification  and  less  instinct  than  worms. 
If  we  stand  upright  like  men,  we  lift  at  once  the 
organs  of  apprehension  into  the  light  of  day. 
This  is  the  true  significance  of  our  lives,  a  life  of 
ideas  extended  by  faith  and  confirmed  by  experi- 
ence. We  know  not  what  lies  about  us.  Once 
possessed  of  the  world,  our  spiritual  instincts  come 
into  play.  We  know  where  we  are  and  whither  we 
are  going.  We  trust  the  divine  forces  in  our  lives 
and  these  forces  gather  us  up  and  bear  us  forward. 

This  building  of  a  spiritual  world,  this  having 
such  a  world  built  for  us  is  the  highest  possible  con- 
struction, the  fullest  possible  life  that  comes  to  us. 
To  move  from  things  to  things,  this  is  science;  to 
move  from  suitable  ideas  to  ideas  still  more  suit- 
able, this  is  religion;  to  combine  all  by  virtue  of 
faith  into  a  living  experience,  is  to  have  room  made 
for  us  among  the  sons  of  God.  The  prospect 
opens  before  us  and  we  see  whither  the  thoughts 


Romans  I  :  17  339 

of  God  are  running.  This  is  fellowship  with  all 
living  things  in  the  highest  life.  The  germs  of 
divine  love,  which  lie  dormant  in  the  hearts  of  men, 
as  the  seeds  of  summer  in  the  frozen  soil  of  spring, 
break  forth  and  grow  with  a  mystery  and  a  vigor 
that  fill  the  whole  earth.  The  world  of  sensuous 
things,  how  marvelous;  the  world  of  ideas,  how 
much  more  marvelous ;  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  in 
which  all  things  at  length  find  the  light  and  disclose 
their  eternal  purpose,  how  transcendently  glorious, 
resting  forever  on  the  life  of  faith !  Herein  is  the 
whole  mind  of  God  disclosed  to  us,  his  holy  city, 
his  throne,  his  Kingdom,  all  reposing  in  the  hearts 
of  men,  never  finished,  always  passing  to  fulfill- 
ment in  the  vital  processes  of  faith. 

Some  speak  of  faith  as  if  it  were  in  some  way 
opposed  to  reason.  It  is  rather  the  apotheosis 
of  reason,  reason  on  the  run  as  it  reaches  the 
goal. 

It  is  not  without  significance  that  the  imagina- 
tion endows  archangels  with  wings,  wings  that  rest 
on  the  least  sensuous  things  and  still  rise  above 
them,  wings  that  seem  to  claim  illimitable  life. 

We  too  are  endowed  with  wings,  the  wings  of 
faith.  We  too  can  go  with  the  rapid  stroke  of 
wings  whither  love  leads  us.  The  fish  for  the  sea, 
the  birds  for  the  air,  and  the  souls  of  men  for  the 


34°  Romans  I  :  17 

still  wider  realm  of  faith  holding  its  way  through 
the  infinite.  The  just  live  and  shall  live,  and 
shall  more  and  more  live  by  faith  resting  on  the 
divine  mind. 


LUKE  X  :  38-42 

ONE  of  the  most  interesting,  and  also  one  of  the 
most  human,  of  the  events  in  the  life  of 
Christ  was  his  connection  with  the  household  to 
which  Mary,  Martha,  and  Lazarus  belonged.  His 
personal  attachments  were  indicated  by  it  more 
than  by  any  other  relation,  with  the  one  exception 
of  his  affection  for  John,  the  beloved  disciple. 
John,  doubtless  sharing  Christ's  tender  regard  for 
the  family  in  Bethany,  has  given  us  more  fully  than 
any  other  evangelist  the  history  of  Christ's  associa- 
tion with  it.  Thus,  in  the  most  sacred  narrative,  the 
links  of  memory  are  still  the  links  of  love,  and  hu- 
man affection  draws  with  it  the  divine  revelation. 
Bethany  was  a  suburb  of  Jerusalem,  hidden  from 
it  just  beyond  the  brow  of  Olivet.  Jerusalem  in 
the  time  of  Christ  was  the  center  of  an  intense 
national  life;  of  the  purest  spiritual  culture  men 
had  yet  attained;  and  of  very  considerable  pomp 
and  circumstance,  both  in  the  civic  and  in  the  re- 
ligious world.  The  court  of  the  ambitious  Herod, 
the  magnificence  of  the  temple,  its  solemn,  ex- 


342  Luke  X  :  38-42 

tended,  and  impressive  ritual ;  the  number  and  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  national  festivals ;  the  subtlety 
and  zeal  of  its  schools  of  doctrine;  the  intense 
patriotism  and  religious  passion  of  its  leading 
citizens;  its  love  of  independence  and  its  restless- 
ness under  the  Roman  rule  made  Jerusalem, 
though  a  city  of  very  moderate  dimensions,  one 
of  the  most  interesting  and  spiritually  invigorating 
places  in  the  world.  What  it  lacked  in  physical 
force  it  made  up  in  religious  energy,  in  the  prophetic 
outlook,  and  in  the  inextinguishable  hope  of  its 
citizens.  Bethany  was  so  near  to  Jerusalem  as  to 
catch  the  overflow  of  its  daily  life.  One  could  be 
occupied  during  the  day  with  the  stirring  events 
of  the  temple,  and  could  return  to  Bethany  for  the 
repose  of  the  evening .  It  is  probable ,  therefore ,  that 
the  members  of  the  household  in  Bethany  were 
thoroughly  interested  in  the  national  history  with 
which  this  sanguine  people  was  so  constantly  alive. 
It  was  doubtless  a  family,  if  not  of  affluent,  at  least 
of  liberal  means.  The  supper  made  for  Christ ;  the 
costliness  of  the  ointment  Mary  poured  upon  his 
feet ;  the  number  of  the  Pharisees  who  resorted  to 
the  house;  the  general  knowledge  and  interest 
which  followed  the  raising  of  Lazarus ;  and  the  fact 
that  Martha  was  "cumbered  with  much  serving" 
indicate  a  household  of  wealth  and  of  position. 


Luke  X  :  38-42  343 

We  are  introduced  in  the  Scripture  narrative  to 
three  members  of  the  family,  all  of  whom  Jesus  is 
said  to  have  loved — Lazarus  and  the  two  sisters, 
Mary  and  Martha.  So  little  is  said  of  the  brother 
that  he  remains  for  us  a  colorless  character,  though 
doubtless  all  three  shared  those  convictions  and 
enthusiasms  which  endeared  the  family  to  Christ. 
Martha  seems  to  have  been  the  head  of  the  house- 
hold. Luke  says  a  "certain  woman  named  Martha 
received  him  into  the  house. "  She  evidently  felt 
the  chief  responsibility  for  his  fitting  entertain- 
ment. It  was  with  this  service  that  she  was  cum- 
bered. Influenced  by  the  brief  rehearsal  of  Luke, 
we  may  easily  form  a  too  unfavorable  opinion  of 
Martha.  In  the  narrative  of  the  raising  of  Lazarus, 
the  words  of  Christ  which  were  fullest  of  revelation 
were  addressed  to  Martha.  He  assures  her  of  the 
inextinguishable  life  of  her  brother  in  the  words: 
"I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life.  He  that 
believeth  in  me,  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall 
he  live;  and  whosoever  believeth  in  me  shall 
never  die.  Believest  thou  this?" — an  assertion 
so  profound,  yet  so  full  of  encouragement,  would 
hardly  have  been  spoken  to  Martha  had  not 
Christ  regarded  her  as  capable  of  grasping  its 
true  idea.  This  idea  is  that  a  spiritual  life,  such 
as  that  to  which  Lazarus  had  attained,  is  a  thing 


344  Luke  X  :  38-42 

so  vital,  so  full  of  promise  in  the  spiritual  world, 
that  it  must  endure,  is  invincible  to  death.  He 
who  possesses  it  has  within  himself,  like  every 
other  living  thing,  the  assurance  of  a  corresponding 
development.  Immortality  is  not  a  mere  word  ad- 
dressed to  the  ear,  but  an  energy  throbbing  in  the 
soul  itself;  it  is  not  something  bestowed  on  one 
man  or  another,  otherwise  incapable  of  it,  but  is  an 
expression  of  that  vigor  of  spiritual  life  which  God 
has  given  to  those  who  love  truth.  Our  fears  may 
not  be  dispelled  by  promises  any  more  than  the 
faintness  of  a  wounded  man  may  be  banished  by 
the  presence  of  a  physician.  When  strength  be- 
gins to  return,  and  the  currents  of  life  are  once  more 
full,  faintness  departs  of  itself  as  an  unreal  thing. 
He  who  shares  the  convictions  of  spiritual  life  as 
revealed  in  Christ  knows  that  immortality  belongs 
to  that  life.  It  begins  immediately  to  take  pos- 
session of  endless  life  as  its  own  birthright. 
Christ  seemed  to  feel  that  he  could  awaken  at 
once  in  Martha,  in  spite  of  her  grief,  by  a  few 
searching  words  this  sublime  sense  of  inextinguish- 
able life  in  the  soul  of  the  believer. 

The  rebuke  of  Christ  to  Martha  for  her  too 
great  care-taking  was  forced  upon  him  by  her 
momentary  petulance,  and  by  her  appeal  to  him  for 
aid.  The  rebuke  in  itself  was  as  tender  as  it  was 


Luke  X  :  38-42  345 

complete:  "Martha,  Martha,  them  art  careful  and 
troubled  about  many  things!  But  one  thing  is 
needful,  and  Mary  hath  chosen  that  good  part 
which  shall  not  be  taken  away  from  her."  The 
assiduity  with  which  Martha  was  providing  all 
things  suitable  for  his  entertainment  was  not  re- 
buked in  and  of  itself,  but  the  inferiority  of  the 
spirit  indicated  by  it,  as  compared  with  the  eager, 
reverent  attention  of  Mary  to  his  words,  was 
brought  out.  We  may  readily  suppose  that  the 
vexation  of  Martha — how  quickly  does  vexation 
follow  with  us  all  upon  some  mistake  in  our  own 
method ! — arose  chiefly  because  she  was  distracted 
by  a  double  desire,  the  wish  to  set  her  household 
in  order  for  Christ,  and  the  equally  urgent  wish  to 
catch  all  the  words  of  Christ.  She  felt,  not  with- 
out a  show  of  reason,  that  if  Mary  were  only  a 
little  more  considerate,  both  of  these  objects  might 
be  obtained.  For  the  moment,  under  the  sense  of 
loss,  she  was  vexed  at  her  sister  and  at  Jesus  that 
they  should  betake  themselves  prematurely  to  a 
spiritual  feast  that  she  was  entitled  to  share. 
Her  language  was  hasty  and  petulant:  "Lord, 
dost  thou  not  care  that  my  sister  hath  left  me  to 
serve  alone?  Bid  her,  therefore,  that  she  help 
me. "  How  does  human  nature  break  down  in  the 
very  moment  of  aspiration!  The  thorn  draws  a 


346  Luke  X  :  38-42 

drop  of  blood  even  though  we  are  plucking  the 
sweetest  rose.  Our  thoughts,  as  we  turn  heaven- 
ward, have  a  taint  of  self-assertion  in  them,  and 
we  become  as  a  bird  whipped  about  in  the  wind 
because  of  its  own  gorgeous  plumage. 

One  greatly  pities  the  chagrin,  the  shame,  the 
sorrow  which  must  have  followed  this  rebuke  of 
Christ.  The  reproof  seems  almost  cruel,  yet  it 
was  a  cruelty  like  that  of  a  surgeon  who  breaks  a 
second  time  a  limb  that  it  may  knit  somewhat 
more  fortunately. 

We  are  not  to  look  upon  Martha  as  grossly 
wrong,  nor  perhaps  upon  Mary  as  perfectly  right. 
Things  had  become  unexpectedly  tangled ;  Martha 
had  tripped  just  as  she  was  reaching  the  summit 
of  her  expectations,  and  the  hand  of  Christ  had 
been  outstretched  to  prevent  her  falling.  It  is 
quite  possible  that  the  reaction  of  the  rebuke  fell 
somewhat  upon  Mary  as  well  as  upon  Martha. 
There  had  been  inconsiderateness  on  both  sides; 
it  had  broken  into  words  on  the  lips  of  Martha 
alone. 

We  have  in  these  sisters  two  types  of  char- 
acter, each  excellent,  but  with  an  unequal  ex- 
cellence. In  Mary  we  see  large,  pure,  spiritual 
receptivity.  If  she  was  at  the  feet  of  Jesus,  other 
things  were  readily  forgotten.  Says  Whittier : 


Luke  X  :  38-42  347 

"  Upon  the  motley-braided  mat 

Our  youngest  and  our  dearest  sat, 
Lifting  her  large,  sweet,  asking  eyes. " 

In  Martha  we  have  closer  contact  with  the 
world.  She  provides  for  the  household  and  she 
does  it  well.  Her  activity  is  greater  than  her 
receptivity,  her  eyes  are  restless  and  searching. 
Her  spiritual  world  must  be  associated  with  well- 
ordered  affairs. 

But  Martha  was  not  merely  a  domestic  drudge. 
If  she  had  been,  she  would  have  kept  still,  and 
would  have  gone  on  with  her  work.  Mary,  per- 
chance, was  indeed  somewhat  to  blame,  we  do  not 
know;  for  Martha  may  have  been  one  of  those  busy 
bodies  who  find  no  end  to  preparations — bumble- 
bees, that  rub  their  heads  all  day  long  on  the 
window-pane  and  never  get  through  it. 

The  characteristics  of  the  two  sisters  are  so  di- 
verse as  to  fall  readily  into  opposition.  They  read 
the  spiritual  lessons  of  the  day  with  very  differ- 
ent emphasis.  The  words  are  dreamy,  far  off,  and, 
to  most  ears,  unreal  as  Mary  utters  them.  They 
are  clear,  crisp,  and  imperative  as  Martha  speaks 
them.  As  creatures  of  this  present  world,  Martha 
is  more  agreeable  to  us.  We  are  rather  glad  that 
the  house  belongs  to  her,  glad  that  our  entertain- 
ment would  fall  to  her;  and  yet  as  awakening  the 


348  Luke  X  :  38-42 

sense  of  invisible  things,  as  casting  upon  life  the 
glow  of  a  spiritual  light,  Mary  lingers  longest  with 
us.  Life  on  the  one  side,  and  the  mere  accidents 
of  life  on  the  other  are  falling  into  conflict  in  the 
two  sisters.  Neither  can  be  perfect  except  with 
and  by  the  other.  We  are  only  wholly  right  when 
we  know  which  are  the  highest  things,  and  when 
we  know  also  how  to  include  all  other  things  in 
them.  "The  earth  is  the  Lord's  and  the  fullness 
thereof."  Wherever  life  touches  us,  as  the  fin- 
ger of  God,  there  should  be  the  breaking  out  of 
fruits  and  flowers.  The  beauty  of  the  Lord,  our 
God,  should  be  upon  us.  When  these  two, 
spiritual  receptivity  and  practical  power,  are 
falling  apart,  Christ  assures  us  that  the  first  is  the 
best  gift,  the  gift  of  Mary,  "which  shall  not  be 
taken  from  her. "  True  mastery  remains  with  the 
spirit;  the  uses  of  things  are  all  with  it.  This  is 
the  truth  primarily  contained  in  the  narrative. 

The  pleasures  of  life  are  constantly  proving  less 
than  we  expect  them  to  be;  far  less  than  they 
reasonably  may  be.  The  wheat  on  our  threshing- 
floor  after  much  labor  is,  in  an  unfruitful  year, 
very  little.  How  many  of  our  mistakes  lie  just  here ; 
the  accidents  of  living  overpower  us;  we  must 
have  all  the  superfluities  of  an  inviting  home  and 
we  become  the  servants  of  these  superfluities.  We 


Luke  X  :  38-42  349 

perplex  ourselves  so  much  in  getting  ready  for 
pleasure  that  pleasure  escapes  us  in  the  very  end. 
"Careful  and  troubled  about  many  things"  be- 
comes the  descriptive  phrase  of  our  lives. 

We  must  greatly  prosper  in  business;  we  must 
win  high  honor;  and  so  when  we  arrive  at  the  top- 
most round  of  the  ladder  we  have  set  up  for  our- 
selves, instead  of  being  ready  to  enter  on  new  and 
ample  and  restful  fields  of  action,  we  find  ourselves 
seated  in  sheer  weariness,  on  a  narrow  rung,  able 
to  go  no  farther,  and  ready  to  drop  thence  in  mere 
fatigue.  The  futility  of  labor  is  a  most  familiar 
and  a  most  distressful  experience  of  life.  What 
wretched  results  do  we  worry  into  because  we  are 
more  interested  in  worrying  than  in  standing  and 
beholding  the  ways  of  God!  It  is  the  craft  of 
the  crafty  man  that  catches  him;  the  success  of 
the  successful  man  that  most  bitterly  disappoints 
him.  We  are  made  shortsighted  by  holding  the 
book  too  near  our  eyes.  We  spend  our  years  like 
a  patrimony  that  has  fallen  to  us,  and  then  we 
begin  to  be  in  want,  and  are  found  waiting  on  the 
impoverishments  of  old  age.  The  one  need  of  life 
is  more  spiritual  receptivity,  a  growing  fellow- 
ship with  the  things  all  about  us  that  are  being 
gathered  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 

This  spiritual  receptivity  is  the  secret  of  success 


350  Luke  X  :  38-42 

because  the  higher  is  sure  ultimately  to  include  the 
lower,  while  the  lower  postpones  the  higher  and 
may  never  reach  it.  Mary  can  more  easily  dis- 
pense with  the  practical  virtues  of  Martha,  than 
Martha  can  lose  the  spiritual  insight  of  Mary.  If 
we  strike  the  circle  of  life  with  a  long  radius,  we 
may  be  slow,  it  is  true,  in  finding  all  the  things  we 
have  included  in  it ;  but  if  we  describe  it  with  a 
short  radius,  we  are  sure  to  miss  most  of  the  many 
things  we  have  shut  out.  It  is  never  safe  to  trust 
ourselves  to  the  affiliations  of  little  things,  for 
little  things  lead  to  little  things ;  it  is  safe  to  trust 
ourselves  to  the  fellowship  of  large  things,  for  these 
draw  all  things,  little  and  large,  to  themselves. 
"Seek  ye  first  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  his  right- 
eousness and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto 
you."  There  is  no  other  growth  so  commanding 
as  that  by  which  great  ideas  enter  into  the  world 
and  possess  it;  no  impoverishment  is  more  ab- 
solute than  that  in  which  an  inadequate  pursuit 
finally  betrays  its  insufficiency ;  in  which  it  withers 
up,  and  drops  away  like  unripe  fruit  from  the  very 
world  to  which  it  has  devoted  itself. 

We  may  pursue  the  best  because  it  is  the  best; 
we  may  also  pursue  it  because  we  are  thus  assimi- 
lated to  it.  The  constant  adjustment  which  goes 
on  between  us  and  the  living  things  in  our  experi- 


Luke  X  :  38-42  351 

ence  is  a  most  conspicuous  and  significant  fact. 
How  many  forms  of  life  there  are  in  the  world; 
how  wide  the  spaces  among  them  by  which  they 
outrank  one  another ;  and  yet  how  readily  the  most 
perfect  and  beautiful  of  them  all  press  the  world 
into  their  service!  The  sun  is  quickening  enough, 
the  rain  is  nourishing  enough  for  the  most  ex- 
quisite flowers.  The  best  men  are  sufficiently 
fed  in  the  whole  circle  of  their  wants  by  the  world 
in  which  they  are.  No  man  transcends  its 
nutritive  power.  What  we  seek  after,  that  we 
attain;  what  we  desire,  we  desire  with  increasing 
intensity  and  gain  with  growing  ease;  what  we 
shut  out,  we  lose  sight  of  more  and  more.  We 
are  like  the  worm  that  in  the  morning  goes  forth 
from  its  tent  by  a  trail  of  its  own  spinning,  and  in 
the  evening  returns  by  the  same  path  to  its  own 
nest. 

The  counterpart  of  this  truth,  that  our  charac- 
ters are  strengthened  in  the  directions  of  our 
pursuits,  is  that  the  world  more  and  more  fully 
responds  to  the  particular  claims  that  we  make 
upon  it.  Whatever  the  appetite,  that  the  food 
nourishes;  if  we  elect  the  best  things  in  the  world, 
the  world  brings  forward  the  best  things  for  us. 
If  we  choose  inferior  things,  it  sinks  in  its  gifts  as 
rapidly  as  we  sink  in  our  demands.  If  a  man 


352  Luke  X  :  38-42 

takes  first  of  all  on  a  well-spread  table  the  wine 
cup,  he  may  soon  slip  under  the  table  with  an 
empty  cup.  The  slug  is  a  slug  though  it  devours 
rose  leaves.  It  asks  food  and  food  is  all  it  gets. 
We  dislike  luxuries,  not  because  the  world  is  not 
rich  enough  to  afford  them,  but  because  of  the 
selfish  appetites  they  beget  in  us  and  the  vicious 
passions  they  nourish.  The  world  is  debased  by 
the  base  uses  to  which  we  put  it ;  is  lifted  up  by  the 
high  claims  we  put  upon  it.  The  goods  we  ask  for, 
those  are  the  goods  which  are  flung  upon  the 
counter;  the  world  will  nourish  reptile,  bird,  or 
beast ;  good  men  or  bad  men ;  noble  men  or  mean 
men,  each  according  to  his  own  nature.  If  we 
choose  the  good  part  of  Mary,  "that  part  shall  not 
be  taken  from  us. " 

This  incident  in  the  household  at  Bethany  is  re- 
peating itself  constantly  in  the  life  of  each  of  us. 
We  are  always  choosing  between  two  things;  not 
merely  between  the  good  and  the  bad;  this  is  less 
frequent;  but  between  the  better  and  the  best. 
The  world  is  hospitable  to  our  lives;  it  is  over- 
flowing with  invitation.  Which  will  we  accept? 
We  need,  therefore,  to  understand  the  organizing 
power  of  the  best  things;  the  force  with  which  it 
brings  all  other  things  into  their  true  position. 
When  the  wish  becomes  a  supreme  affection,  when 


Luke  X  :  38-42  353 

all  feelings  flow  into  it,  as  brooks  into  a  river, 
then  we  begin  to  have  the  finished  man ;  his  action 
on  the  world  and  the  world's  action  on  him  are 
both  blessed. 

It  matters  comparatively  little  how  large  or 
how  small  the  circle  of  gratifications  may  be  in 
which  we  are  moving.  Character  is  involved 
as  much  in  spending  five  dollars  as  in  spending 
five  hundred.  The  world  gives  great  things  for 
almost  nothing  and  it  has  little  things  to  sell 
at  most  extravagant  prices.  In  a  world  whose 
spiritual  gifts  are  in  the  background,  and  whose 
luxuries  are  in  the  foreground,  spiritual  receptivity, 
the  power  to  choose  the  best  things,  becomes  a 
primary  consideration. 

We  are  very  liable  to  disparage  our  own  oppor- 
tunities. We  are  ready  to  think  that  if  such  a 
chance  should  come  to  us  as  came  to  Martha,  we 
should  be  sure  to  improve  it.  We  now  choose  so 
poorly  because  we  have  only  poor  things  among 
which  to  choose.  We  pick  up  no  jewels  because 
there  are  none  in  our  path.  Herein  is  our  great 
error.  The  great  choices  are  made  more  or  less, 
in  darkness.  Confusion  overtakes  every  mind; 
conflicting  desires  distract  us  all.  The  good  thing 
is  to  be  found,  and  it  is  not  very  far  off.  Christ 
never  walked  more  freely  among  men  than  now; 

33 


354  Luke  X  :  38-42 

never  came  nearer  to  them  in  more  ways  than 
now.  The  world  is  spread  out  more  widely  before 
us,  with  the  sunshine  of  God's  grace  upon  it,  than 
ever  before.  The  din  and  confusion  and  obscu- 
ration are  all  our  own.  It  is  these  things,  and 
these  only,  we  have  to  fight.  If  our  souls  root 
themselves  in  divine  truth,  as  the  plant  that  finds 
the  fertile  soil,  we  shall  grow  there  with  increasing 
peace.  Every  man,  at  one  time  or  another, 
catches  sight  of  the  good  and  covets  it.  Such 
impulses  are  like  rocks  uncovered  for  a  few 
moments  when,  at  low  tide,  the  flood  of  passion 
is  all  out;  they  are  covered  again  when  the  swel- 
ling waters  return.  Martha  desired  the  words  of 
Christ,  but  she  deferred  the  moment  of  receiving 
them,  and  so  was  quickly  enveloped  with  petu- 
lance instead  of  with  peace. 

Great  things  must  be  laid  hold  of  the  moment 
they  are  offered;  we  must  be  obedient  to  the 
heavenly  vision.  We  must  determine  our  course 
while  the  stars  shine;  the  clouds  will  hide  them 
again  in  a  moment.  It  is  the  single  eye  that  fills 
the  whole  body  with  light.  Large  things  cannot 
be  left  to  compete  with  little  ones  and  to  be 
jostled  by  them  in  the  crowded  thoroughfare. 
They  will  not,  like  a  disarranged  procession,  press 
through  an  archway  too  small  for  them,  too 


Luke  X  :  38-42  355 

narrow  for  their  pomp  and  circumstance.  The 
gates  must  be  lifted  up,  if  the  King  of  Glory  is  to 
come  in. 

If  we  choose  this  good  part,  it  shall  not  be 
taken  from  us.  Why?  Because  it  runs  in  the 
line  of  our  highest  powers ;  because  it  covers  the  best 
ministrations  of  the  world  to  us;  because  the 
grace  of  God  lies  back  of  it  and  the  gifts  of  God 
come  with  it.  "We  have  found  him  of  whom 
Moses  and  the  prophets  did  write."  After  this 
juncture  of  life  with  life,  and  with  all  the  condi- 
tions of  life  once  accomplished,  separation  is  impos- 
sible. Who  shall  pluck  us  out  of  the  hand  of  God, 
once  in  his  hand,  for  these  ends  of  salvation?  We 
understand  the  words,  "Ask,  and  ye  shall  receive, 
seek  and  ye  shall  find,  knock  and  it  shall  be  opened 
to  you, "  as  operative  not  all  at  once,  but  under  those 
slow,  certain  processes  of  growth  which,  being  estab- 
lished, control  the  future.  We  are  working  with 
God  and  so  God  is  working  with  us.  If,  amid  the 
confusion  of  life,  amid  the  many  things  to  be  done, 
we  can  find  the  feet  of  Christ  and  seat  ourselves 
there;  if  we  can  discover  some  spiritual  truth  and 
steadfastly  pursue  it,  order  will  take  the  place  of 
disorder,  hope  will  crowd  out  fear,  and  the  new 
life  will  make  all  things  new.  The  living  pro- 
cesses of  the  spiritual  world  will  have  us  in 


356  Luke  X  :  38-42 

charge,  and  will  bring  to  us,  not  so  much  safety 
as  strength.  Whatever  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
shall  ultimately  contain,  that  shall  be  ours 
also. 


A      /•/>[  J-!  ""' ""'  '"'I  wli  Ilia  III 


